Travel memories
We all know that traveling with children – especially very young children – can be a very challenging experience, even as it is rewarding. We’ve tried all kinds of ways so far in our nearly six years of parenting, and I’m not sure if we’ve figured it out, but there’s one basic principle that seems to help us get through:
The more you plan, the better the trip will be.
My in-laws participate in the annual migration of senior citizens who fly south for the winter. (Actually, since they are there for two or three months they usually drive or take the Auto Train, but you get the idea.) Since the kids were born, we try and visit when we can. This is our fourth trip down there in five years, twice by land, twice by air. I’ll just briefly describe our trips:
Trip One: the drive. Oldest was: about 20 months. At that age, she hated the car seat, especially when it was facing backwards. She was pretty verbal, considering, but there was only so much we could really do to keep her from going nuts. There were many unplanned stops along the way just to calm her down. One secret for our trip was: leaving in the middle of the night. We figured that since she slept better at night – though not always through it – we could go further if we had her unconscious. We adhered to that principle on the way back, too, in the very scary fog. That was a very long ride home – I got a ticket, too – but we did see friends of ours who lived in the Washington, D.C., area the next day. And on the way down, we happened to catch my in-laws and stayed with them at the same hotel in South Carolina. We split the driving unequally, because I got stuck entertaining the baby in the back seat and kept getting nauseous. I should also note that on this trip she was still nursing, and that was one factor in getting her back to sleep. I’m not sure what we’d have done otherwise.
Trip Two: The Disney Detour. Oldest was: 2 ½. Youngest was: in utero. We flew to Mouseland, watched cartoons on the tv (JetBlue, baby!), had a great trip for a few days, then rented a car and drove it to in-laws’ place, about five hours away. Oldest heavy into Ariel phase, and mercifully, she hated “It’s a Small World,” so we only went through it once. We did, however, take endless pictures with the little mermaid. We had just begun potty-training shortly before the trip, and fortunately we managed not to throw her off, though it was during this trip, at the JFK airport, that she got her first experience with the automatic flushing toilet. We’re still working hard to get her over it. I fondly remember her final words on the return flight home, before falling asleep: “We’re flying, like Dumbo!” Before we’d reached a cruising altitude, she was out. Good thing, too; my headset jack was broken, so I used hers. A few other points: we used the car seat on the plane for her, to give her more comfort. If you do that, remember that you have to put the baby/toddler closer to the window. You have to be able to get out in case of emergency. We sat on either side of her going down, but coming home, we had her in the window seat, which she liked. We also discovered that her ears bother her during the descent, just like her father’s. She had a hard time on the flight to Mouseland, but she slept all the way home, so we avoided one crisis. I’ll give my advice for what to do to help reduce the ear pains in my next blog, as I continue with my Florida trip memories.