The first holiday with your children, enjoy!
Now that the summer break is truly over for everyone with school-going children, it's time for the new families to board the plane. Fortunately for me, it's been a while since I last went to the airport with diapers, stacks of spare onesies, and a buggy. And yes, you read that right: I say fortunately, because a vacation with your adorable mini-me is not really a vacation at all.
When you travel with young children, the caregiving from home continues. In fact, it even intensifies! There’s temporarily no office day to look forward to, and you’ll find yourself running after your toddler all day long (yes, really!).
Flying with toddlers
Let's dive right into the most exciting part! Do you always find it annoying to take off your shoes at security and place your laptop in a separate tray? Well, brace yourself for the security check this time. Because during this 'vacation,' you'll also have to fold up your buggy and take out your baby. Often, this happens while your toddler is just starting to run away... I'll spare you the vomit and diaper stories from our flights.
Lovely beach day
No matter how close your hotel is to the beach, you won't be getting there in no time on this trip. Go ahead and set aside an hour for applying sunscreen, gathering buckets and molds, and putting on the swim diaper. Do you love lounging on the beach and getting a tan? Well... you’ll get some color, alright! A nice red shade. Because there will be no time for you to properly apply sunscreen to yourself.
Eating out with kids on vacation
This is anything but relaxing. Maybe you'll be lucky and manage to sit at the table for a quarter of an hour with the whole family. Our record is five minutes, I think. One would consistently run away as soon as we sat down, and the other would throw everything within reach. Hardly any eating happened. We even had a vacation where our little toddler lived on just yogurt for a few days.
Jetlags
Do you love going to Aruba, Mexico, or some other far-off tropical destination? You might want to skip these trips for now. Are you still heading somewhere with a significant time difference? Then the vacation will become even more exciting! Remember what it was like to be wide awake at 6 AM? Imagine being woken up at 3 AM by your little one who is already fully rested.
Going to the disco in Spain
If you never went to a nightclub on vacation, you won’t be missing much. But if you were always found in the local bar-dancings, it’ll take some getting used to being absent. The glass of wine on your balcony after an exhausting day will be the closest thing to a night out for now. Unless you want to join in on the mini-disco dances...
So… if you’re going on your first vacation with your little one soon… be prepared and good luck!