Parent as Packhorse?
I don’t fly (my husband refuses), but Lisa Unger’s frequent flier article over at the NY Times this week had me groaning in total agreement.
I too have plane shame - or the road-tripping parent’s equivalent. Where I once traveled with one bag in hand, I now carry six. And it’s all due to the three-foot-and-change person who travels with me.
STUFF has taken over our vacations. Bags of it.
Our Mother’s Day trip to visit my in-laws down in Virginia required a bag for her toys (nine hours in the car, you better believe we brought toys), a bag for her accoutrements (kid toiletries - from the baby wash we still use to the swallowable toothpaste she likes best), plus that colossal bag for her clothes . . . extras of EVERYTHING lest we be stuck somewhere without a laundry and she spilled her way through a pile of t-shirts and shorts.
By the time we got done packing in a cooler full of cold juice boxes, yogurt and fruit, we had just enough room in the backseat for her booster seat . . . oh yeah, and her.
Put together, my husband and I had fewer bags then our (then) three-year-old. But our trip, to borrow a phrase from Unger, “required the mobilization of a small army.”
Her daughter has now been on more than seventy flights, and her passport is littered with the evidence of visits to far-flung countries. Unger calls her an “intrepid” traveler.
My daughter “travels well” too, despite someone teaching her those infernal words “are we there yet” this spring (Pennsylvania, by the way, is interminably long to a three-year-old, but even longer to her suffering parents). But there’s nothing like pulling up to a hotel, booking a room and then making six trips back and forth to the car for her stuff . . . when you’re only staying the night. Hey - we had to get her Elmo bathing suit. And her flip flops. And her (toy) computer. And . . .
Do you feel plane shame for your packhorse parenting?
Image: CSN
Related Posts:
-
Fountain Shoots, Um, Breastmilk?
-
Kids + Clothes = Crappy Gift?
-
Our Four Best Picks for Kids’ Packs
-
Have $3,500? Let Your Kid Live Like Eloise
Related Posts:- Little Hoarders - How Do You Help Your Kids Part with Their Toys?
- Start Shopping Now With Babble’s Discounts and Deals
- Kids + Clothes = Crappy Gift?
- How to Keep Toxic Toys Out of Santa’s Sack This Year
- Teen Attacks Dad Over Loud Snoring
Tags: Jeanne Sager, on the road, parenting, plane shame, planes, road trip, summer, trains, travel, vacation
5 Comments
Treespeed commented on Jun 24 09 at 2:44 pmYou don’t HAVE TO carry all of that stuff with you. You choose to not say, “no” to your kid. I know it’s tough, but it definitely makes schlepping across the airport easier when you give them ONE bag that they can choose to put whatever they want into, but then that’s all they get.
PlumbLucky commented on Jun 24 09 at 2:57 pmSometimes. Sometimes its parental convenience. Sometimes its just flat necessity. I’ll be taking an infant (under 1) to Mackinac Island…where during the sailboat race finishes, certain normal “accoutrements” seem to go missing (they get put away by the establishments so they don’t get beat up and broken) if they even existed in the first place. Example - microwave or refrigerator in the hotel room…not to be found for under $400 a night during that time frame (so a bottle warmer, even if its just to heat food, and a plug-in cooler for his food are kinda needed). I *could* buy diapers on the island, if I could find them, in his size, and felt like paying 3x the cost anywhere else for them. Laundry? Not to be had. High chairs? If the restaurants had them, they’re put away for boat weeks…so need something to park his little bum in at mealtimes. And so on and so forth…
jeannesager commented on Jun 24 09 at 3:02 pmThanks PlumbLucky - I wonder, Treespeed, what you suggest I say “no” to. The juiceboxes and fruit? So I should stop at McDonald’s or tell the three-year-old she can’t eat for nine hours. Or maybe I should leave home the extra pairs of underwear because she is THREE and just potty-trained a few months ago? Or maybe the booster seat, you know, it does take up an awful lot of space!
You don’t get to streamline toddlers the way you do older kids, especially if you don’t want to, as Plumb Lucky said, spend and arm and a leg while on vacation.
GP commented on Jun 24 09 at 5:13 pmWe traveled to France and took trains to 4 different hotels with a one year old. We had to carry all our gear and the kid. Travel light. No big deal. Most things that you need, or that get trashed or lost you can buy again, even if it costs a little more (diapers in Europe, on the Euro). You’re on vacation! You can find toy-like things for them to play with and they like random things better than toys anyway, in my experience. We did bring some toys, but, like I said, no more stuff all together that we could carry. Of course, we only have one kiddo and we like it that way. Now car trips are a whole other story…you can load that baby up!
Knitty commented on Jun 25 09 at 9:33 amWe limit her stuff to a single suitcase plus her diaper bag. My husband and I traveled extensively before we had our daughter so we’re pretty good at packing light, and fortunately she isn’t a kid who requires a lot of stuff/gear. Even for car trips (we live in Minnesota now and make lots of trips north to the lake), we keep the stuff to a minimum — for the car she has a few books, her favorite stuffed animal, a bottle of water and some fruit. I grew up with serious hoarders (like the sort you see featured on TV, seriously) so I have a strong aversion to clutter and STUFF in general. I don’t want to spend vacations worrying about it or trying to keep track of it — I’d rather just make an occasional purchase if we have to.
