One Mom’s Plan To Show Her Son The World
Karen Akpan with her nephew, nieces and son as they smile for a photo while camping in the Sahara Desert on their recent trip to Morocco.
Karen Akpan seemingly has all the answers for traveling internationally with a child. Her first-hand experience of flying across time zones and crossing borders with her son Aiden (6) was and still remains the catalyst for her growing brands ’The Mom Trotter’ and ‘Black Kids Do Travel’. Karen’s smart tips on how to wisely pack for a child and ways to ensure their comfort during long flights have made her a guest on Los Angeles’ FOX 11’s Good Day L.A. and was featured on Good Morning America’s website. Her sage-like wisdom for travelers to “Follow the sale, not the location” continues to be a resource for parents who follow her on social media while expanding the scope of black travel. However, the growth of her platform had less to do with offering advice and saving finances and more to do with finding more quality time to enjoy with Aiden.
The Akpans and family in front of The Pisa Cathedral and The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy.
“Back then my job was very consuming because I would have to travel all the time,” Karen Akpan says about her previous career as a clinical researcher. “I would be gone for days--weeks--and I would take my son with me. And that’s how I initially started my blog ‘The Mom Trotter’ when he was just 15-months at the time.” Karen then opens up about how the pace all but forced her to slow down. “When Aiden turned three, I started to transition away from that schedule because it was very exhausting for me and for him. We were flying about four-to-five-times-a-week and that was crazy with a child.”
Their first trip together was to Las Vegas when Aiden was six-months-old. By the time he was almost four, they were traveling nearly five times a week. This was when Karen made a gradual transition to blogging while she was still working full time and traveling. Aiden’s educational model of unschooling fits this on-the-go lifestyle. Unschooling, which Aiden has been immersed in since ‘day one’, is a method of learning where the student’s personal interests and curiosities define the curriculum. While most children Aiden’s age are reading dated textbooks in boxy classrooms, he experiences a lesson plan that best reflects him as well as the global community. Karen Akpan’s mother was a principal who raised her daughter ‘by the rule and to the book’. That rigid approach was not what Karen wanted for her son. Trips nationally and abroad are taken at least once-a-month with varying lengths-in-time designed by Aiden’s want to hear the sounds, learn the customs, see the sights and taste the foods from all corners of the world map.
“It’s funny because one time an adult came up to Aiden and asked, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be in school?’ to which he responded, ‘I am in school’. And the man was confused, then my son goes, ‘The world is my classroom’. It made me giggle so hard, but it’s the truth--he is in school. This is his classroom. Everywhere’s his classroom.”
Karen and Aiden at The Ruins of St. Paul in Macau, China.
Karen’s laughter is that of a mother watching the rewards of a choice she made to ‘unschool’ her son paying off in dividends. The warm exchange gave Karen the idea to develop that quote into the shirt that openly states the message. Aiden’s inquisitive mind then brought up an aspect of travel he was becoming quite aware of to Karen. “He asked me: ‘Mom, where are all the brown people? I never see them when we’re traveling’. It struck a chord in me and ‘Black Kids Do Travel’ was born after that.” Karen Akpan explains how the family-driven content blossomed into a network of other traveling parents of color trekking from country-to-country. “We just wanted to build a community for black families to meet up aboard and network.”
Soon Karen’s two nieces, Avery (4) and Milania (5), and nephew, Ethan (6) rounded out these familial excursions around the world making her brand appealing to parents traveling with kids. England, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Mexico, Egypt, France, Chile, Hong Kong and New Zealand are just some of the 28 countries Karen Akpan and her husband, Sylvester, have flown the children away to see up close over six years as traveling with family. She advises many on opting for stays in hostels instead of booking a costly hotel to save money. The same rule applies to how spending too much money on one large trip to a dream destination when families can maximize their traveling options by planning smaller, closer trips to cities and attractions. Seeing more for less. It’s an indirect way of teaching financial literacy to her network of parents who are traveling with kids by living by that standard when it comes to planning her own family’s international and domestic travel itineraries.
Karen’s ability to stretch her dollar made the Akpans the focal point of a commercial for HSBC Bank. The passion she shows for wisely balancing finances in the two-minute piece is the same energy felt in her blog entries and interactions with her growing network. Karen’s audience has ballooned into a private Facebook group teeming with over 20,000 like-minded families eager to span the globe. Images of her traveling with family also promote black travel. Her public Instagram group consists of families of all colors ‘excited about just seeing black kids travel’. Though numbers mark the substantial growth of her once small idea, Karen Akpan maintains that the platform’s true impact is less statistical and more influential beyond money.
“I tell people all the time to get up and get out. My biggest thing is to take the kids somewhere--anywhere. People are always so stuck on ‘I have to fly this far’ or ‘I have no money, I can’t go anywhere’. I tell people all the time that I’ve taken Greyhound to take my son somewhere.” Karen Akpan goes a step further to outline the concessions she’s willing to make to further Aiden’s borderless exploration. “For me, cutting back on things is not a problem. If we need to only have one card so that I can show my son the world--I’m ok with that. And I know, a lot of people are not ready to make those sacrifices, but when you do, you will see those results. It all boils down to what’s important to you. For me and my husband, giving my son, nieces and nephew the world is important.”
Be sure to follow Karen Akpan’s travels at ‘The Mom Trotter on Facebook and Instagram. and at ‘Black Kids Do Travel’ on Facebook and Instagram.