As far as moms go, I consider myself very close to my kids. I know their eccentricities inside out, know exactly how nervous they are in a soccer game by how much they touch their socks, and can predict within a 2 second accuracy rate when one of them is going to whack the other. But after spending the last week traveling around Iceland with them in an RV, it was what I didn’t know about them that took me by surprise. Here’s what I learned (and I’m guessing you’ll learn some equally inconsequential facts about your own kids if you spend a week trapped in a 4x10 moving metal box with them.)
1) They will (most likely) go months without feeling the need to change their clothes or brush their teeth
I’d suspected this one for a long time, but didn’t have the chance to test my theory until they were in the position of having a choice. Wear the same clothes day in, day out and stack up the stink, or jump into the RV shower and rinse all that grunge off for that fresh go-to-bed-clean feeling? We all know the answer to this one…
2) They’d rather repeatedly throw themselves down a hill next to a world-class waterfall like rag dolls at arm-breaking speed (or being “tumbleweeds” as they call it) than actually hang at the waterfall
Iceland is home to some of the world’s most impressive waterfalls, and Skogafoss is no exception. After a quick photo op and soaking by it’s monstrous spray, the boys spent the next hour running to the top of the hill leading up to it and throwing themselves down like rag dolls to the shock of anyone around. (In fact, one woman screamed the whole way my youngest tumbled down thinking he’d fallen from the top, and was most unimpressed with my mothering skills when I casually strolled over with some water after he picked himself up. )But the point is, we can take them to the most mind-blowing locations in the world and nothing will stop them from finding a game that entertains them on the side while the main show goes on without them.
3) They are fearless
After 17 years as a pro snowboarder, my husband sees risk through an entirely different lens to the average person. I guess we got married in part because I’ve always had a somewhat iffy taste for adventure myself. But my kids know a different kind of fearlessness and it’s one that makes me happier than fresh picked Californian strawberries dipped into melted Swiss chocolate. Whenever we travel, we strive to keep off any beaten track and experience adventure against the grain of the travel-guide. That often means us scouring out spots where no other humans can be found and as far as this trip was concerned, sleeping in our RV in remote places with no soul in sight. When I realized my boys failed to blink an eye at some of our more strategic conversations — “Do you think we are parked far enough up the beach if the tide brings in those huge blocks of floating ice?” — it struck me just how fearless they are.
4) They communicate secretly
It wasn’t until cleaning up before returning the RV that I discovered that each night my boys had a secret bedtime communication session. One of them would write a letter about all the things they wanted to do the next day, bang on the other bunk, hand the letter down, and then the other would return a reply, along with their next-day-wishlist. Not only was this pretty cool in terms of brotherly connection and creativity, but I also got to see what they were excited about on the trip, which included checking out the icebergs as well as finding somewhere new to undertake the aforementioned “Tumble-weeding”.
5) They need no-one else but each other (and Elvis, the dog)
My boys fight. Mostly they fight over things that really make no sense, like who is going to say hi to the dog first. But they are also incredibly close. Only 17 months apart, they share friends, interests, and even shoes. While I sometimes wonder whether we are crazy that we almost always travel just the four of us, the more we do it, the more I love to see the bond building between them as they spend endless hours on the road, in planes, visiting places that take their breath away, and coming up with games and rap songs about poop that can entertain them for hours. On this recent trip, their synergy seemed to go beyond anything I’d seen, and they were in an almost perpetual state of self-made entertainment with only the occasional cry for Elvis, our Labradoodle.
So there you have it. An odyssey through the glaciers and icebergs and waterfalls of Iceland in an (at-times) totally claustrophobic and stinky RV was a great reminder of how much I still have to learn about my beautiful boys. I’m looking forward to seeing what layers the next trip will uncover.
