Ah Trini Travelogue Trinidad & Tobago's most travelled blogger through 99 countries. Create and Re-Engineer your life for travel.
When Mitchell was born, I had ideas about travelling the world with the family and having him learn things on the road. This family blog : “Family without Borders” chronicles the adventures of a fairly young couple and their two very young children … don’t they look amazing? With their young children and all these exotic adventures … they either have nerves of steel and are completely deaf to the cries of their children or they have extremely well adjusted children who are super social and don’t get sick. Travelling with a kid
I barely have time to adjust my underwear much less blog about travelling with my child. Travelling with a child is mentally exhausting … anywhere you’re going, you have to pack the equivalent of a Humvee because if you’re not prepared for some catastrophe or the worst possible bout of vomiting/diarrhea then you’re going to get caught out and you’ll hate yourself for not prepping, hate the baby for being a baby with diarrhea and you’ll probably hate your spouse, tour guide and small puppies on the street. Not necessarily in that order.
Here’s the thing … for every picture or two like these of him in Antigua or Barbados …
There are 10 versions of this scenario where is he tired, cranky but really trying his best. Mitchell is the best travelling baby we could have had and he is tremendously social and happy. That being said … he just turned one year old and there is only so much you can expect from a one year old.
I don’t know what the “Family without Borders” is on … or the “Flashpacker Family“. Some days I wish I had it, maybe I’ve gotten a little too old, maybe I’ve seen too much of the world on my own and now running around the globe trying to show my one year old some of what I’ve seen is just simply unrealistic.
We returned home last week from a fabulous two week trip between Toronto and a Southern Caribbean cruise. It was nice and we had a great time … and Mitchell was the star of the ship. He had a phenomenal time on the cruise, because there was so much space on the boat to play and be safe along with about 1500+ surrogate parents on the ship.
Note: The parents did not bring their children on the cruise … because they either wanted a break from their children, or objected to Celebrity Cruises’ policy of charging parents for young children under 5. (Celebrity can kiss my ass on that policy … but I’ll have a separate post on this topic to come.)
Every time we got off the ship … it was a combination of the following
- Pack up everything required for an entire day out (formula, diapers, etc)
- Find a taxi where we could have a car seat being attached (yes … we took along a travel car seat with us)
- Negotiate and get moving.
Back to the point … although he is a great kid, who loves being with the folks in slightly nicer places than Prince Edward Island in the winter, it takes a tremendous amount of energy, preparation and willpower to travel with a baby. I think that these fancy backpackers who cart their children everywhere are slightly insane … and a bit selfish. Kids need adventure, but they also need stability and a schedule.
It’s impossible to have your child on a sleep schedule or any schedule when you’re on the road constantly. That’s my opinion and I’m sure that these family bloggers would beg to differ but I think that dragging a baby on the road with you is just not a good practice … where else would they learn to climb on a dishwasher.
