"Don't let them push you around, my youngest son said halfway through the Camino de Santiago. You don't have to get up early if you don't want to. I didn't know that was an option, replied his brother from his bunk. This subversive banter is what our family sounds like now. The old hierarchy has loosened. We are four adults negotiating the day."
"We had walked with these boys since they were babies, first carrying them in backpacks, then coaxing them along with snacks and stories, eventually handing them the weight of their own packs. Summer holidays meant hiking; winter meant ski touring. This was our family's culture. They mostly accepted it, though not without resistance. One son declared that once he left home he would never climb a mountain again a vow he later broke by independently hiking coast to coast across Britain."
A family of four walks the Camino de Santiago as two sons prepare to begin independent adult lives. The 30-day pilgrimage fills a narrow gap before the sons leave for different cities, countries, work and relationships. Years of shared hiking—carrying infants, coaxing children with snacks and stories, and handing over packs—shaped the family's identity. During the walk the old hierarchy loosened, conversations became playful and decisions democratic. A parental suggestion to save time by catching a bus was outvoted, illustrating a rehearsal for a different kind of parenthood that involves letting go and accepting flawed group choices.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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