My first long haul plane trip was when I was 12 years old, my Mother put me on a British West Indian Airways flight from Heathrow, travelling solo to Trinidad to stay for a year with her sister and family. My Mother had actually never flown having arrived  from the West Indies to the UK by boat in 1948 and had little desire to for another 30 years, this didn’t stop her planning her trip of a lifetime for me. She instilled in me a lifelong love of travel and although only having been to Paris before I was born she had an incredible knowledge of the world.  In a little over two weeks I am off to the UK and France, usually I travel alone but this time my daughter and two small grandchildren, TT and Little Miss Lil are along for the ride. It is many a year since I have been overseas with small children and I must say I am excited. In my opinion a big reason to take your children to another country  is to experience all of the subtle and maybe not so subtle ways that countries in other parts of the world treat their young citizens. I’m dreaming of absorbing some of their excitement and wonder as we take off.