momstown Oakville

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Travelling with kids?

*This post is written by momstown Oakville's Community Manager, Sarah M*

We try to travel often as a family and the most popular question I get from other moms isn't "where are you going?" but "how do you do it?" with three young kids.  We may make it look easy in the pictures of smiling faces on the beach or kids jumping in the hot tub for "apres ski", but there is an stressful and sometimes unpleasant side to travelling with little ones! We've learned along the way and have been able to really make things easier on ourselves.  We are able to enjoy more and stress less!


With summer vacation upon us, so many families are taking off on vacations together.  I thought I'd share a few things we learned along the way:

1. We've learned that our kids are really the happiest with the simple things!  Yes, a bucket and a shovel on the beach, or a popsicle pool side.  It doesn't have to be days filled with adventure (although we like those too).  We learned to put many relaxing days into our vacation, and just enjoy spending uninterrupted time with our kids.



2. We also don't put stress on the kids (or our wallets) with too many restaurant meals! We try to always stay somewhere with a full kitchen and cook most meals in.  A place with a washer and dryer sure can lighten the luggage load too!

3. We travel with as little as possible as far as "baby gear" goes!  We have managed (thanks to google) to find baby gear rental places.  We rent extra strollers, cribs, we even rented an exersaucer and bouncy swing.  These are all things that make you feel like you have the comforts of home, without dragging too much with you!

4. We focus on making memories with our children, and enjoy seeing the excitement in their eyes!  We've certainly given up on the idea of coming home from a vacation feeling rested and relaxed!  We often come home more exhausted than when we left.  We do however have the memories that are priceless.  Our kids are only young once - and we figure we'll catch up on sleep when they are older.

Safe travels this summer:)

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