Tomorrow, my husband and I will take our 9 month old son on his first plane trip.
My husband and I were married for 10.5 years before we had our son. We traveled. A lot. The kind of travel that you slam on a credit card and spend the next six months paying off while eating pasta six times a week.
We also weren't really into children for a long time. We would recoil in horror from the people on flights who had children with them, hoping and praying that we wouldn't be sitting next to them.
And now we're those people.
We went to London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, and finally Florence, where after a week of steak Florentine, Chianti, and gelato, we came home pregnant. (For those of you having trouble conceiving, I suggest a diet of only that.)
Our fear is that traveling will be put to the minimum since we're now parents. And I'm not talking domestic travel within the US. We still want to see the world even if we have a baby. Because we have a baby. We want his passport to have a book full of stamps by the time he's three.
So how do parents do this? Can you still enjoy a vacation abroad while taking care of infants, toddlers, and older children? What kind of advice and activities work best for all of you?
This blog will hopefully discover this and provide advice for parents traveling abroad with children. Americans don't seem to do this much, but I don't think it's impossible; it just takes a little extra planning.
So here's an article that my husband, Chris, came across about flying with children. One of the most surprising bits of advice is to not pre-board. I have to say that I was kind of looking forward to being the people "traveling with small children" who get on the plane before everyone else. But when you think about it, if you board before everyone else and are sitting there in the seat with your kid, doesn't that lend itself to a meltdown sooner rather than later? I want to spend as little time on the plane as possible. Especially since my kid can't even tolerate a carseat for longer than 15 minutes.
Also, ID for your child is very important, whether it be a passport or birth certificate. And a seat is suggested for a long flight.
http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/2007/11/tottips.html
I will update soon on the outcome. Here's to hoping!
