Flying through motherhood

Last time I went on an aeroplane with a baby, I may have taken just a bit too much stuff. Thing is, even though the Wee Man had been around for 5 1/2 months at that point, I still hadn’t quite got the hang of what I actually needed to take out of the house with me for a day out – much less a one month long trip to the other side of the world.

Seems I’m not the only one – research shows that many parents say it takes up two two years for them to get the hang of parenthood. Not only that, but 58% feared that actually they’d never get the hang of it.

Of course, I was just beginning to think that I might have some idea of what I was doing, and then Bubby D arrived…and the whole parenthood thing shifted to a different dimension again.

Which is why, this time travelling on a plane, I needed to pack lighter – not just because the Other Half is not, as he puts it, an octopus; but simply because we don’t have room to get twice the amount of stuff we had before into the car and to the airport. So…the case filled with reusable nappies that last time travelled all the way to New Zealand had to go for a start. (That wasn’t my idea either, it was the Other Half’s.  This time the convincing argument of ‘no launderette, bagful of reeking nappies, possible imprisonment for transporting toxic waste’ allowed me to ditch that requirement).

So what did we take with us? Well, being huge Trunki fans it’s no surprise we had Harley the Ladybird and Bernard Bee accompanying us, along with their friends Leroy and D the Snoozihedz (they’re travel blankets that fit snugly inside a little pillow and perfect for napping out and about) and a Trunki tote bag for each little one as their carry on (just the right size to use as changing bags while on holiday, and they fit snugly inside Harley and Bernard too!).

We also packed the iCandy with Maxi-Cosi Pebble for Bubby D and a Trunki BoostApak for the Wee Man to use as a car seat in the taxi’s in Spain, and a Koo-di pop up travel cot for Bubby D to sleep in.

One suitcase for the Other Half and I, one carry on with all my work gear and laptop and that was us packed.

Once again, airport security were amazed as we turned up to go through their various scanning and prodding and tray filling regimes. But this time it was not due to the vast quantities of random stuff we had bursting out of various bags and cases, but because we had so little of what they would normally expect. ‘No juices for the kids? No baby food jars?’ they asked, a little incredulously. In fact, all we had was an empty Munchkin click lock cup each for the Wee Man and Bubby D which we could fill with water once we were through security, and because they are large enough to hold quite a bit whilst still being easy for little hands to manouvre around, I was satisfied that that was all they would need for our flight to Spain.

Half the stuff we took before, and twice the children! Well it seems I’ve got at least one aspect of parenting sorted…*

So now it’s time to embrace the Munchkin philiophy that it is ‘the little things’ that count, and enjoy our holiday together with less stuff, and more fun 🙂

*in case you are wondering, sadly that is not the only criterion for feeling on top of parenthood. In fact, the same research from Munchkin that provided me with the statistics I quoted above also details the top ten things that mums felt had to be mastered before things clicked in to place

• Being in a good routine (er…no)
• Knowing what to do when baby is crying (does crying myself count?)
  
• Not worried about dealing with baby in public (got this one sorted! yay)
  
• Not panicking when baby is poorly (the words ‘headless’ and ‘chicken’ come to mind…)
  
• Leaving the house with a spare change of clothes (Often I remember one child’s clothes and forget the other – and I never remember my own!)
  
• Being able to change a nappy quickly (got this one mastered, too!)
  
• Having baby sleeping through the night (amazingly, it happened last night…let’s see what happens this evening…)
  
• Leaving the house with milk/food and snacks (we like food, so this is never a problem)
  
• Always having a toy to entertain baby with (who needs toys when they’ve got my phone/keys/wallet/ears)
  
• Being able to leave the house on time (HA! This never happened pre-baby so I’m under no illusions that it’ll ever happen now)