Keeping Your Sense Of Adventure As A Parent

When’s the last time you got truly adventurous? Adventurous enough to go somewhere new with spontaneity. Felt the thrill of stepping outside of your normal routine or comfort zone? Take yourself back to the last moment you remember the rush of exploring the unknown and felt the connection between yourself, others, nature or the world around you. 

Maybe your moment was strolling down a boardwalk as you listened to the birds flying overhead. Maybe, it was blasting Zach Bryan in your car as you drove to the next town over to take in the smell of freshly ground coffee at an aesthetic artisan style bakery. Maybe it was feeling the crisp Winter air as you sat around a fire at a rented out cottage overlooking a frozen lake sipping Baileys and hot chocolate. Maybe it’s been awhile and you honestly can’t remember right now… 

Between the sleep deprivation, tighter budget, brain full of tasks and the ongoing learning curve of being a parent; it’s not uncommon for our sense of adventure to deplete a bit. That doesn’t mean it has to stay that way though! Instilling a sense of adventure within our family life is a great way to bond and foster wellness as a family.

Marie from Msurlaroute is an Explorer who inspires others to add more adventure to their life. She shares amazing highlights from her trips on her Instagram that would make anyone want to spring off the couch and start the car to check some of these places out! 

What is Marie’s Motivation for exploring? 

Marie says “I've been exploring for as long as I can remember, but I only started sharing my adventures during the pandemic when all we could do was go out for a walk. I decided to grab my phone and start snapping some shots of what I was seeing on my walks. This is where Msurlaroute (which translates to M on the Road in English) started. I started to see that people were curious about the places I was visiting and that made me want to explore even more and even further. I also realized that going outside helped with my mental health. I was going through a deep depression at the time following a hard breakup and sickness in my family. Going out and sharing my adventures helped me connect with nature and with people who were going through similar things. Three years later, I'm still sharing my adventure across Ontario and the world.” 

Marie’s motivations to explore are so relatable! I personally found that once I started going on adventures again my mental health had improved. I felt so stuck in the house at the start of my mat leave. Similar to how I had felt during the lockdowns honestly. I was overwhelmed by the thought of packing up my baby and being away from the convenience of staying home. By being at home, everything I needed was centralized and on schedule. 

However, the memories my son and I have been making together since deciding to maximize my time with him by going on adventures has been worth any inconvenience or extra planning that has been required. If you’re interested to hear more about how you can foster a sense of adventure in your family read on! 

Finding Time For Your Sense Of Adventure 

First thing is first. Our schedules can get pretty hectic. 

Marie says “I love day trips! I work a nine to five job. So, I don't always have time to travel very far. I utilize the weekend to do small day trips that are less than two hours from my home. My day trips are usually based on places I want to photograph. I honestly plan everything around photography. This can be a pretty trail, a lookout, a waterfall, a cute town... I just make sure I go somewhere I know will inspire me. I try to leave early in the morning to make the most of the day, especially if I have to drive a bit further. And of course, I try to add a cute coffee shop to all of my adventures. I just love the vibes of coffee shops!” 

How inspiring is it that Marie works a nine to five and still goes on all these adventures!? It also means that it is possible to find the time to do it for others in the same time constricted boat. When asked how Marie finds the time around her day job she said “OMG, I hear you! I often feel the same way. That's why I like to do little things like going to watch the sunset, feeding the birds at the park or trying a new coffee shop. These are things that you can easily do in just a few hours after work or on the weekends. Once you start including it in your weekly schedule it will become a habit and you'll realize that you can make the time for it here and there.” 

With kids, sometimes routines keep the sanity in check. If you’re worried about disrupting a routine for your child then you could try adding an adventure block to your family calendar. You could also try pre-packing an “adventure bag” with some of the essentials so that when it does come time for your family outing you just have to grab the adventure bag and a few of the day-of items like the perishable foods before you go. This will reduce some of the day of stress making it more enticing for you to stick to your plan. 

It may be possible to tag on a little adventure detour to some of your everyday errands while you’re already out. Sometimes, when we go to get our groceries and we are bringing the baby we will add in a little detour before or after like a small shop we haven’t been to before or a nice walk in the park. It’s nice because this way we don’t have to worry about anticipating whether or not our baby will be in a good mood. If we’re already out and he’s content it makes it easier to just add the adventure detour onto our current outing. 

Another streamlining thing we have been doing is trying to combine visitors and adventures. The weekends are primarily when people want to come and see the baby which is also our prime time for adventures. So, we invite them along! Plus, the extra set of hands is great and reduces the time required for the logistical stuff while we’re out and about. 

Finding Your Sense Of Adventure 

After you carve out the time for your adventures, how do you find the sense of it? 

Marie suggests “start small and local. Adventure doesn't necessarily mean going to a place on the other side of the world. Adventure can be as simple as going to a park you've never visited or trying a restaurant you've been meaning to try.” 

Marie makes a great point that an adventure doesn’t need to be grand. I think the first step in finding your sense of adventure includes defining what an adventure looks like for you. This is something that you can re-evaluate as your circumstances change. You can take on new more challenging adventures as you have more time and comfort level to do so. 

Marie adds “when I started my Ontario adventures during COVID, I created a list of places I wanted to go and every weekend I would randomly pick one to visit. Now, I often ask ChatGPT to create a list of activities to do and places to visit near me. I find that by doing that it takes the pressure off, you'll never feel like you don't know where to go or where to start. I also recommend following people that are already going on adventures on Instagram or TikTok, they often give amazing ideas of what to do. On my account for example, I encourage other people with a nine to five job to go on little adventures and my goal is to get them to start exploring themselves.” 

Okay, ChatGPT is a fantastic idea for getting adventure inspo! As an example, I asked ChatGPT for some fun activities in Ottawa to do with your kids and it gave me back thirty activities broken down into categories with vendor/ location ideas. 

Depending on your child’s age, it would be fun to see what they come up with for adventure time too. My little one is a while away from that yet but I am excited for the day I get to ask him “So, where do you want to go today little man?” 

Having A Sense Of Adventure Has A Positive Impact On Our Lives 

Marie says “as I've mentioned above, a few years ago I went through a deep depression. Adventuring has saved my life really. It has given me goals and nature is so healing. It's a fun way to do self-care and make sure you are doing something for yourself once in a while.” 

In addition to adventuring being healing in general; I think it is also healing in our roles as a parent. For me, I’ve found adventuring creates more fun in our parenthood journey. It maintains the mindset for us that parenthood hasn’t taken away our ability to do fun things or that we haven’t lost out on things we previously enjoyed doing pre-kid. Our fun may look different than it did without kids in terms of the duration of our outings and the logistics but we’re still connecting with new and old favourite experiences nonetheless. 

Adventure Story Inspo

Marie shares “there are so many! It's not easy to choose just one. One that comes to mind is a sleep over in an Alpaca pen at Haute Goat Farm. You sleep in a shed right there with the alpacas. This was such an amazing experience. Imagine waking up, opening your door and being surrounded by Alpacas. That's definitely the most unique adventure I've been on in the past year.” 

If you’re looking for a closer to home Alpaca experience, check out Maple Hill Urban Farm! They offer an alpaca tour. This is a small example of how you can take an adventure inspo story and adapt it to an experience that is easier to fit into your current family schedule. 

Trips Out Of The Comfort Zone 

Marie shares “I think my trips to Morocco and Vietnam are the ones that got me out of my comfort zone the most. But to this day, they remain two of my favorite destinations. Not speaking the language is always a bit stressful but I have found that people are usually very patient and extremely nice. I would go back to these two destinations any day!”

Comfort zone is scalable. Maybe for your family,  the “Vietnam” is a trip to Toronto. This past summer, we took our two-month old to visit family near Parry Sound which is five hours from our house. It was definitely overwhelming but it ended up being one of our favourite memories of this year as a family. It was definitely a learning curve (I have never seen a more tightly packed SUV in my life) and we had to budget lots of extra time but it all worked out and our baby did great! 

Affording Your Sense Of Adventure 

Marie says “meals are usually the most expensive. If you are able to stay somewhere that has a kitchen, you will be able to save a lot of money. I personally love visiting grocery stores and farmers markets. Not only do you get to try new ingredients, but you will not have to break the bank.” 

For smaller scale adventures, planning ahead will help. There are often early bird discounts on tickets. Another thing you can check is if you have a wellness account at work through your benefits program. If you do, the wellness account will often cover certain activities. Other general ways to save money are using points programs and redeeming points to cover costs for things like snacks or tickets. You can also try balancing between choosing a free activity and pairing it with spending on food or shops and then switching it next time to a paid activity but not spending on snacks or shops. This year, we have a young baby who does not need any toys for Christmas so we are asking for things like experiences instead. If you are looking for a gift idea this holiday season that isn’t tangible, could save you money and increase your adventure time it may be worth adding a few experiences you want to have this year to your Christmas wishlist. 

Cheers To Your Next Adventure! 

Finding the time to venture out as a parent might seem daunting at first. I hope reading this gives you a bit of inspiration and motivation to plan your next family outing and capture some of those core memories. Life is full of opportunity to explore no matter how big or small the adventure!