With summer comes weekend getaways and longer vacations. My question to fellow parents: Have you found a way to travel lightly or to avoid carrying on four different bags? I haven't mastered this yet, particularly after Ryan's birth.
It seems you need a diaper bag for the accidents waiting to happen, an endless supply of snacks, and formula. Then there's the toy bag that is weighted down with the 10 extra metal Thomas take-along trains that your son sneaks in, plus the books that never feel heavy until you put 5 in a bag.
Maybe I'll carry a purse or other carry-on bag for my own reading and relaxation. (Hmmm, I always have at least one dream on vacation.) Finally, my husband insists on packing his own backpack that has, well, I have yet to determine what's really in it.
No matter what we pack, it never fails: The children want something other than the 10 snacks we packed, the toys barely make it past take-off before the kids get bored, and the flight always feels longer than it really is.
But it's (almost) always worth it in the end.
1 comment:
Our trick is to bring the portable DVD player, which comes out only on plane trips and long car trips (more than 2 hours or so). Yours is installed in the Pilot, though, isn't it? It keeps Cooper occupied for the duration of the flight. Katie wasn't mobile on the flights we've been on so far, but I expect she'll be harder to contain next time we fly.
We also pack one or two "collection" books -- compilations with multiple stories -- instead of 5 o 6 separate titles. A good trick when Cooper was 2 was to carry on a spiral notebook and a pack of stickers (we get the pack of 500 or so that teachers often use). He was content for 20 or 30 minutes at a time, placing stickers all over the pages.
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