TriadMommies.com: Travel With Kids

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Travel With Kids

11:59 AM | Posted by TriadMommies |

Over the river and through the woods: This time of year is full of busyness. It seems there's always somewhere to go. If you are like me, your calendar is full of entries like the following: get tree, buy presents, see Santa, holiday party, family dinner, Tanglewood, church, other family dinner. And unless you have a full-time, live-in nanny who works for free, you probably have to take your kids with you to most of these things. With growing crowds in stores, pews, and roads, here are a few ideas to keep your kids safe and yourself sane in the hubbub of the holidays.

1. Be willing to trade. When I was a kid, my mom would send us to the neighbors' house when she needed to run errands on her own. It was a reciprocal program with no one keeping score. There was no cosmic tally sheet of who watched whose kids more hours. In fact, a retired couple was usually available to watch soaps with us kids when parents weren’t around. If a childcare trade isn't your style, or you live next to the Munsters, you still have trade options. You can search for a babysitter willing to barter with you. As a last resort, you can just have an unspoken trade agreement with all the other harried moms out there: If you bring the wrong kids home, you'll care for them at least as well as your own until it can all get straightened out.

2. Label everything. Maybe you dress your entire family in the same outfit, so it's easy to spot each other in the toy aisles. Perhaps you tattoo your address on your child's forehead, should they stray. You could just make a phone number bracelet with elastic string and number beads, or slap a Band-Aid on baby’s back.

3. Practice attachment parenting. Grab a carrier and tote your tot wherever you go, or buckle them into a stroller. Older children can still be kept close with the clever use of a straitjacket and leash. Bungees and/or Gorilla Glue are cheaper alternatives for the thrifty mom willing to do a little extra work, like contesting all those pesky DSS reports.

4. Arrive late with lousy presents. This is a long-term plan but is quite effective. If you disregard people's plans and tastes enough, they'll stop inviting you to their shindigs. Even your family will quash the invites if you give enough stale fruitcakes. They might also block you on Facebook and ignore your calls, but you’ll won't be fighting any crowds to see them again.

5. Plan ahead. Erect a tree a la Charlie Brown. Buy all your gifts by June 25. Who doesn’t need a new tube of sunblock in December? Grandma will adore the originality of a new bikini top in her stocking! Not only should you complete all shopping early, but you should also arrive at every event at least an hour early. Your kids will be so wiggly by the time service starts that no one will want to sit in your pew.

— Ashley (00tedsgirl) is the proudly frazzled mom of two beautiful kids. Between cutthroat games of Chutes and Ladders and spontaneous dance parties, she spends too much time on TriadMommies to keep up a regular blog.

Labels: Holiday, humor, kids, Travel

Travel With Kids

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