Blog Archives - Page 45 of 46 - Mom's Guide To Travel

Sep 26 2009

Taking Care of Yourself

One of the things about traveling that I tend to forget about is that it takes a toll on the body. I was kindly reminded of it this past week when my immune system said “nighty night” and shut down Sunday evening, mere hours after getting off the road from a weekend getaway.

The change in environment, introduction of new germs, lack of sleep, change in diet, exposure to more people are all leading factors to why we tend to get sick when we come off of a trip. I’d say the main factor is pure lack of sleep. It happens to me everytime. I go away, I’m pumped and excited to be somewhere other than the “4 walls” of my house, I stay up later watching t.v. that I don’t normally watch at home (although I get the same programming), and before you know it, “kachoo”, the first sneeze and accompanying sniffle make their way to the surface. Apparently it isn’t enough that I take Clorox cloths and wipe down various surfaces in the hotel room or that I travel with my own washcloth and sometimes my own towel or that I wear slippers in the room or flip flops in the shower or line the bathroom seat with paper. No, that’s not enough. Somehow, someway those sneaky bastard germs make their way through all of my other protective barriers and catch me through that one little crack…sleep.

Bottom line: I need to take better care of myself when traveling with my children. I make sure that they are in bed on time and that they’ve taken their necessary vitamins. I even try to maintain my workout schedule when I’m away from home. It’s just a challenge for me to wind down and go to sleep at a human hour…kind of like now. I was lucky this time around, getting over my sickness in a few days but it took discipline to do so. I went to bed before 11pm most nights this week; I didn’t workout before 6 am in the morning; I took either Nyquil or TheraFlu to have uninterrupted slumber; I drank 3-4 packets of Emergen-C a day coupled with double shots of vitamin C chewables; and I napped in the day, whenever my body wanted to say “nighty night”. I didn’t fight it.

Moral of the story: Go to bed! You’ll do your body good. Everything that’s there now will be there tomorrow. Traveling can be exciting and we may try to cram as much as possible into our schedules so that we don’t “miss anything” but what’s the sense in going away on mini-breaks or vacations if you come back sicker than when you left? None whatsoever.

So, on that note: Good Night.

Sep 19 2009

The Things We Do For Our Kids

I got the title for this post from a Face Book friend as she was replying to my Status Update where I said “soo tired – did mid-morning workout, drove 5 hours solo with the kids, yawning like crazy but still trying to be a trooper and let Amir enjoy a late night swim.” I thought quickly about what she said and nodded my head. Too true.

Us moms in particular preoccupy ourselves all too often with ensuring our kids’ happiness or what we think would make them happy sometimes to our own detriment.

Yesterday was my oldest son’s first homecoming game for football and the days leading up to them were difficult for me as I struggled with the decision of staying to allow him to go to the game or hitting the road with he and his brother instead.

We had an engagement to attend the following day which required me driving 4 hours away – that’s 4 hours without traffic (it actually took me almost 5). I had actually considered going to the 8pm homecoming, getting up early the next morning, hitting the road, and making it to our destination in time for the event.

But then I thought about me being on the road with the kids by myself not feeling totally rested and probably slightly stressed and I reconsidered my options.

The only option was to forego the game, pick my oldest up early from school, and get ahead of the I-95 Friday afternoon traffic. Nobody wants to be stuck in that with a 1 year old and a 5 year old. And I wasn’t.

I had definitely made the right choice.

My son asked me while we were on the road if we were going to make his football game, a question I was dreading because I didn’t want to hear the disappointment in his voice.

The excitement of traveling and my choreographed explanation dispelled any anger that he may have harbored and I was relieved of my fears to ensure his happiness for that day.

Sep 14 2009

One Place My Kids Will Never See With Me

As you can imagine, I’m always on line researching and reading all things related to traveling with your kids. In my research just now for an Examiner article, I came across an article from Budget Travel.com on 15 places every kid should see. Number 2 on the list was Ground Zero in New York. Honestly, I felt like my heart stopped when I saw that suggestion but worse yet, it felt like someone punched me in as I read “The nearby Tribute-WTC Center exhibits crushed firefighter helmets and other recovered items.” But I knew that I was still breathing because if I wasn’t I wouldn’t have been able to cry. I am crying at this moment as I write. I felt compelled to get on and write this post as I sit in the midst of my heartache otherwise how I feel will not truly be conveyed at another time. And I feel that if I write through this I can get out of this place that the suggestion took me to. Unfortunately, my thoughts aren’t very organized right now, they are seriously all over the place, therefore my writing will be all over the place. I apologize for that. I’m not in a place where I can self edit and I will not return to this post to edit outside of spelling mistakes.

First off, you’re probably wondering why I am so upset. Well, I worked at 1WTC for Cantor Fitzgerald for 3 years after graduating college in ’96. I left my job as an institutional broker for grad school. Many of my friends that I made on the job working 12 hour days, 5 days a week, stayed behind continuing their careers, one of my closest friends in particular. She had just come out to visit me in Los Angeles where I was living at the time for a week a couple of months before that fateful day. When September 11th happened, I was still working in the securities business, so I was awake as I listened to the events on my way into work. When I got to my office and saw the images on the t.v. I had to leave. When I got to a girlfriend’s house to sit with her, it was before the anyone thought that the towers would fall but I knew that I’d need company because I couldn’t get my friend or anyone else in NY for that matter on the phone. All of my family lives in NY so I didn’t know what was going on or what to expect. It was the one time in my life where I felt the most alone in the world and probably made the mental note to move back East and be within driving distance from my family. When the towers fell, I sat looking at the screen in shock and then just started screaming and kept screaming. Even til this day, 8 years later, I know that I haven’t dealt with this. The pain is still there, dormant, suppressed. Every year on 9/11, I take a personal hiatus from television. I listen to no radio, I read no papers. I guess that’s not dealing with it.

Now to the Budget article. I was truly interested in reading where they thought EVERY kid should visit, prepared to make a mental note for my own. I’m always open to suggestions and new ideas. Reading that the “museum” has items retrieved from the towers has plummeted my imagination into overdrive. All I can think about is going there to face whatever demon I need to face and seeing a familiar item of my friend’s or my best friend’s ex-boyfriend (or an item of anyone else I knew from the job for that matter) and absolutely losing it. I know I would. I’m not even there and I feel like I’m losing it. What would I explain to my kids? Should I explain anything to them? I think that would be a conversation that I will leave for my husband. I think that would also be a trip I’d leave for him as well if he felt so inclined to take them. I understand it’s a part of our history now but that day isn’t just “history” for many people who lost loved ones. It’s a bad bad dream, one never to be forgotten. It’s a hole, like the one in the ground that marks the place of hate and destruction, that can never truly be filled. I think what also stung me was that the “museum” was charging. My thoughts on that are why should anyone make any money off of the death of our friends and family.

I’ll get through this moment. I have to leave the post in this place, not really wrapped up like I usually like to do because that would be disingenuous to my feelings right now.

Aug 28 2009

Expert by no means

Sometimes we all experience a little bit of hubris and think that we have a routine down-packed. We feel good about ourselves and take for granted the system that allowed us to be so successful in the first place. The layman’s term for this behavior is: “slacking”. The reason why successful business people are successful is because they stick to a credible and working system, day in and day out.

My major system for calming my nerves and being organized when I travel with my little men is using my TDLs, my To-Do-Lists. They work each and every time and for the most part, the major items on them don’t change – pampers, wipes, extra change of clothes, snacks*, Nintendo DS, towel, washcloth, etc. etc. But for some reason, for a weekend trip we took earlier this month, I lost my mind for a second and actually thought I was an expert at packing the kids up and hitting the road. While my husband was getting his stuff together (which is his only responsibility), I was running around the house sans TDL, grabbing items that I thought were imprinted on the front of my eyelids because I had done it so many times in the recent month. Tsk tsk tsk, mommy. What was I thinking? Between my husband asking me questions, my text messages buzzing away, my oldest son racing his cars back and forth on my hard wood floors, and my one year old opening and shutting my kitchen cabinets, how could I expect myself to remember everything? Impossible. Why didn’t I make a quick list or grab an old one? Who knows? To my frustration and dismay, I forgot my washcloths, our pool towels, my cover-up, a pair of my son’s swim trunks, my infant’s swimmers, and a couple other smaller items. By the time I realized it, we were already at our destination, so there was no turning around to get anything. THAT’s why I write TDLs – because when I’m traveling, besides keeping myself organized and on track, I HATE FORGETTING STUFF! Hear me when I say, it is one of my biggest pet peeves. And rightfully so, because I refuse to purchase something that I already have at home (unless it is a dire need) and therefore, I make myself suffer and do without it.

It is my belief that no matter how many times you’ve packed up your children and hit the road, and no matter how many times you’ve written out a TDL and may think that you have it imprinted on your forehead – if you stray away from that proven system which you established that allowed you to not forget anything and get out of the house in a timely fashion without having to return, you are bound to forget something.

I challenge you to try it next time. Try to pack up for a trip, day or overnight, without your TDL (if you’ve normally used it in the past) and see if you don’t forget an item. Let me know how you do. I’m just curious. I know that I’ve learned my lesson. And though I am one of the ultimate multitaskers, probably an overtasker, I’m definitely not a memory bank. And I take pride in that fact. Hey, I’m a mom, not a computer! I’m all for my brain working smarter, not harder.

*Here is a list of some “mommy snacks” that I travel with: sugarless gum, protein or granola bars, almonds, raisins, almond butter, water, baby carrots, mini pickles, mini yogurt cups, rice cakes, grapes, sliced apple, and the occasional bag of chips.

Snacks that I pack for the children include: crackers, apple slices, fruit cups, chips, fruit chews, juice boxes, water, pretzel sticks, granola bars, and anything else I see in the house that I consider grab-and-go.

Aug 09 2009

Bathing Baby On Vacation While Away From Home

It’s always seemed a little stressful for me to think about bath time for my baby while we traveled. He’s still in the ducky tub phase and I can’t fathom putting my child down in a hotel bathtub for his evening ritual.

No matter how posh or seemingly clean a hotel room appears, I never take a bath in its’ facilities. I even make my husband and son wear flip flops when they take showers to protect their feet. I can’t even blame my germaphobia on the numerous hotel exposès I’ve watched on hidden camera shows. I just see my obsession as safe practices in health and cleanliness.

In the past, my husband and I tag-teamed showering with the baby. One person would hold and wash him in the shower while the other waited outside for the pass like a quarterback after the snap.

As my son has gotten bigger, maneuverability has become more of a challenge but he still isn’t ready for flip flop-laden showers.

The solution was simple – invest in an extra inflatable tub for travel. They are inexpensive, lightweight, easy to clean, and familiar to him. I can always keep it deflated and stored in his suitcase since we already have one at home and inflate it once we reach our destination.

I have no qualms about placing the inflatable tub in the hotel’s tub (though I may spray the tub down with disinfectant first) and resuming to our normal business.

Granted, the bath is an abbreviated version of our normal tubby time – devoid of songs and play. However, it gets the job done, relieving us of both back strain and an argument due to my slight case of OCD and my husband’s frustration with me. Poor guy.

My hang-ups as a mom are always backed by good intentions. I just want my boys to be as safe and comfortable as possible so that they can enjoy all aspects of the travel experience.

Next time you travel with your baby and have a question about how you’re going to be bathing baby while you’re away, consider using an inflatable tub as well. Then let me know how it works out for you.

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