Traveling Forward

Despite the chaos, we still dream of traveling more with the kids.  If they retain nothing else when they grow up their experiences have given them adventurous spirits. You can wake them up at 4 am, hand them clothes, and stuff them in the car with a waffle and a travel backpack and they are ready to go. They have seen the space shuttle launch, watched howler monkeys from their hotel room, and cuddled kangaroos. I hope that we can continue on our journeys as they grow and change. Our goal is to manage the chaos, learn from our mistakes, laugh at the mess and maximize the thrill of travel in ways that work for us.  At least we always have a good story to tell and a sympathetic shoulder for our fellow family travelers.  

Travel Realism

I have long since given up on the perfect trip with kids touted in the glossy magazines, books, tv shows and websites although I still read them obsessively to enhance our experience.  For me, travel with kids is sticky, unpredictable and loud.   In my world, the kids will spill enough stuff on daddy on an airplane that his pants can stand on his own after a long flight.   No good place to change a diaper exists, only the least bad.   At some point my kids will make enough noise on a trip to irritate people on the airplane no matter how much attention I give them or how many diversions I bring.   There is a reasonable chance that any liquid I bring will explode onto things it shouldn’t.   It doesn’t matter how many goldfish crackers I pack I will run out of them and misplace the favorite stuffed animal before a long flight home.   I will overpack at least an extra suitcase too much.  No matter how badly I want to adventure travel, some activities are not appropriate for kids who resemble bite sized snacks for wildlife.

Gotta Get Out

Months went by. By this point I was crawling the walls. I needed out of my house, town, state and country. I would have gone absolutely anywhere. Kudos to my husband for sticking it out with a self professed travel lunatic who pretty much lost her mind with jealousy watching him travel for work.

Since that time we have found our travel groove which consists of endless strategizing and maximizing fun in the chaos. By the time the kids were 3 and 5 we visited Hawaii twice, Disneyland twice, Florida, Australia, Costa Rica, and numerous places throughout California and survived them all.

What Really Happened

6 weeks after learning we were pregnant I started to spot. This went on for months. Not only could I not travel I could barely leave the couch. We plotted for the next trip after the baby was born. Finally, John arrived. We were shocked by how much went into caring for a baby but still we were determined to travel in our sleepless state and trade off naps. Then, at a few months old, John developed potentially serious medical problems where not only could we not travel we could hardly leave the house with him. I never returned to work from maternity leave and we were in a constant state of anxiety and fear for his health and safety.

Thankfully after about 8 months John was declared happy and healthy and a few months later he was dismissed as a patient by his specialist.  It was time to plan a trip to celebrate!  Armed with a pile of ineffective medications for John’s severe eczema and a doctor’s note assuring the airline that he didn’t have the plague, we made our first foray to New York at 10 months followed by Disneyland at 13 months and Germany at 15 months.  

Those three trips pretty much stripped us of our confident carefree travel dreams.  Instead, we learned many things.  For example, our baby will not stroll happily through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has no ability to make a time change to Europe and is allergic to all hotel bedding.  We also determined that we moved less stuff from our apartment to our house than we packed to get from California to New York.  In addition, it became clear that carrying a Britax Marathon on my husband’s back the entire length of Central Park was not the most practical idea we ever had.  We didn’t regret any of those trips, but we needed to reset our expectations.

5 minutes after I stopped breastfeeding John I was pregnant with Baby No. 2.  Six weeks later I was spotting, eight weeks in I had a whopping case of double bacterial pneumonia, and I had significant bleeding until the 3rd trimester.  Not only was there no trip I was housebound for 5 months except for doctor appointments as I fought day by day for her life.  An occasional trip to the mailbox was a big deal. Somehow we managed to land Cate safely.  My parting gifs from pregnancy were asthma, extra pounds, traumatic stress, an admonition from the obstetrician never to have anymore children, an overprotective streak, two cute needy messy loud beautiful souls, and a burning obsessive need to travel.

The Stick and the Dream

Looking back we were delusional about what family travel would entail. We were pleasantly surprised when the stick turned positive. The travel magazines, websites and tv shows gave us comfort that our travel life would continue smoothly if we planned ahead and followed their tips. We would take a babymoon and after birth the baby would come with us like wiggly luggage while we showed him the world. Of course, we would have to bring more things for him but he would happily gurgle while hotels around the globe would admire his cute self and welcome us with open arms.

Before the Storm

My husband and I met in college and were a long distance couple throughout graduate school. I visited him in Switzerland, he proposed in England, and we flew back and forth amongst New York, Michigan and California. Finally, after 6 years we married. As lawyers we worked around the clock but every so often the stars would align and we would plan the big trips. Our bookshelves were packed with travel books as we dreamed of the next location. We honeymooned in Bali, visited Hong Kong, Thailand, South Africa, the Maldives and took multiple trips to Europe looking for the next big travel rush. We planned to start a family after our safari in KwaZulu Natal South Africa.

The Story of Travel Crazy Mom

Once upon a time there was a husband and a wife who worked hard so they could travel the world.  For years they went near and far and to the ends of the Earth to see as much as they could see.  One day they decided to start a family.   Travel Crazy Mom’s story begins when the stick turned positive.