Guest Blog

We have been so busy lately, and have had some trauma this week.  In spite of it, I finished a Guest Blog for Small Town Kids magazine's blog that I was asked to and had committed to write several months ago.  I am sharing it with you here, and I promise to write more about our amazing time in San Diego soon. For now, you can enjoy a sampling of our travel "fun"...

http://www.stkmomblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-travel-with-young-kids-by.html

How to Travel with Young Kids by Yourself: Ten Lessons Learned

Last week, I took our boys (ages 8 and 4) on a Mystery Trip to San Diego.  I planned the trip to surprise them at the end of the school year, and kept it a secret for six months.  My husband stayed home to work, so I was flying with both boys by myself.  I have traveled with them alone many times, but usually by car to visit family.  Direct flights, a dear friend and her family to pick us up and act as our host for four nights, a wing and a prayer...

10. Carry on a Bug.  A stomach bug.  I woke up the morning we were leaving with a nasty stomach virus.  Two-hour drive to the airport. Three-hour flight.  Stomach virus.  I’m sure TSA loved seeing the fourteen boxes of Imodium and Pepto in my carry-on.  Let the adventure begin!

9. Plan to carry everything yourself.  We were all packed up and I had the best plan. [I like to plan.]  I would carry my large purse/tote on the plane.  I would pull my roller suitcase.  The boys would each carry their own backpack with their own toys/stuffed animals for sleeping, and the 8 year-old would pull a second suitcase with the boys' clothing.  What you should expect after making a similar plan: you will carry two backpacks, a tote, pull two suitcases, and eventually also give a piggy-back ride to a preschooler whose legs “give out.” Oh, and this after you load the backpacks up with Legos from LEGOLAND that the kids promise they will carry on the way home. 

8. Forget the animals. Pack the kids’ backpacks with books, toys, non-washable markers [Mother of the Year here!], snacks, and stuffed animals they sleep with every night.  Double-check them.  Triple-check them. Forget the preschooler’s most prized night-time animal.  Proceed with trying to get him to nap on the plane and sleep in a strange place for four nights without said animal.

7. Remember the Tylenol.  Assuming you have a two-hour drive to the airport like we do, and that the headphones to your vehicle’s DVD players are broken as well, be prepared to listen to Planes: Fire & Rescue [insert: Frozen if you have precious angel girls] five hundred and fifty times.  Vodka and driving don’t mix.  Pop Tylenol.

6.  Pass the Popcorn.  Air-popped popcorn is a brilliant snack: healthy, a source of whole grain, low calorie, fiber-rich.  Perfect for throwing over the seat on other passengers and sprinkling on the ground for Flight Attendants, who obviously have nothing better to do, to clean up between flights. 

5. Always locate the nearest restroom. If your children are a different sex than you, finding an appropriate restroom may be difficult.  My older son doesn’t like to go in the Women’s Restroom, and I do not necessarily think it is appropriate at his age (8 ½) anyway.  I would not dare send him into the restroom alone in a crowded airport or theme park. [Okay, so maybe once.  But I swear that was an emergency.] We found some that worked.  At Love Field in Dallas, it was a Family Restroom.  In the San Diego airport, it was a Gender Identity Friendly Restroom.  

4. Go to the Beach.  It may be overcast, chilly, and drizzling.  But it is a magical place to children.  It is, after all, the edge of the world. Just make sure you are far enough away from them so it doesn’t appear they belong to you when they start throwing rocks at the cliffs just in front of the “CAUTION – EROSION CONTROL IN PROCESS:  DO NOT THROW ROCKS OR CLIMB ON CLIFFS” sign. 

3. No Green Stuff. Check out all potential hamburger eating establishments to ensure no “green stuff” (i.e. parsley) is sprinkled on the fries.  Said “green stuff” is not used at burger establishments around East Texas and is, therefore, unacceptable and massive-fit-throwing-worthy.

2.  Come Home to a Tornado. Literally, a tornado.  We missed the actual tornado, but came home to numerous trees down, and a house without power.  I unpacked backpacks, suitcases, a fridge, and three freezers of food. Oh, and my husband had to go out of town for work so I was again on my own. Who wants to lend me a nanny and a housekeeper?

1. Most of all, ENJOY it. They are only young for a little while.  Travel with them: show them new places and different ways of living. Sit back and watch their smiles. Listen to their laughter and to them tell you they loved every minute of it.  They will learn, they will discover, they will be better for it.  You will, too….  once your back heals from carrying luggage and your ears stop ringing from the parsley meltdown.

xo,

Lindsay