You are probably thinking, why would anyone be crazy enough to get on an airplane and holiday, better yet travel with a baby?! I want to tell you our reasons for seeing the world as soon as we entered parenthood!
First of all, being a new parent is fricken hard work! You are suddenly hit with this huge amount of responsibility, for me, I felt like I was now just this ‘mum’ and not Elle. My identity was lost, I had no idea if I should dress how I always dressed. I remember even going out and showing Stu other mums and saying I think I need to go shopping to dress like them. You know, the classic pretty floral dress, thick tights – usually a nude colour, a lovely little cardigan and some small healed, practical but cute shoes. Before kids I was more of a baseball trainers, basketball top, jean type of girl. Not anymore, I had to be responsible looking. Or so I thought. I attempted having this look, I hated it. Quite a few months in I began to realise I could still be myself and even more so now I am 3 years in to motherhood I am feeling more comfortable in my mum skin, in my OWN skin!
Anyway, I think I’ve side tracked. So travelling was something WE could do together, a passion we both share and wasn’t all about us doing mum and dad things although this was something we could still do whilst still being parents. We were able to embrace our each other and our new family bond whilst not being disturbed by bills, appointments, work, phones etc. We got the family travel bug, more and more places were being added to our list. Also dealing with all that shit new mum stuff brings its an amazing way of finding yourself as a new parent and being able to actually have some downtime with your family.
Okay so of course with not paying for the babies they do not get a seat and would therefore sit on your lap. Another alternative is to purchase a seat for your infant and use an approved car seat (you will need to check with your airline what seats can be used on board). But it all honesty, I have never minded having my baby on my lap, I could think of worse! However, if your baby is under the airlines requirements, most if not all long haul flights have a Bassinet for your baby to sleep in. This is usually around 9 months and at a certain weight but each airline is different and is worth checking that out.
If you want to go on hikes, go out for a meal, go for a long stroll along the beach or whatever it is that you want to do, you won’t have anyone telling asking you ‘are we nearly there yet’, ‘can we leave now’. I won’t lie, I’m not looking forward to that but i’ll deal with that when we get to that point. The point is, babies will not and cannot moan at you for doing something you want to do, so you get to see and do whatever. Of course baby isn’t always happy but you occupy them and pretend their cry’s are because their teeth are hurting at not because they don’t want to be going to see some boring museum.
Baby led weaning – (if you’ve not heard of it, check it out. It makes things so much easier) Okay so we first took Phoenix and Indiana around the Caribbean when Phoenix hit 6 months. This was our test run of a cruise (amazing by the way, I should really do a blog on that!), which meant there were buffet foods every single day! Everything was already cut up ready to give to Phoenix, he got to try all these new foods without me having to go to the shops and spend a fortune on new exciting foods for him. It just made life blissful and easy for us.
So here’s the deal, we had to go to as many places that we could possibly go to in the first two years of our children’s lives, we are not rich, have rich family, have amazing opportunities handed to us. We work hard for it, we save, we don’t drink, everything we do now goes towards travelling the world with our family. So getting flights during the first two years of their lives was free for them, for us to be able to afford it this is what we had to do. Money is obviously a big factor for many people when it comes to travelling, so when possible, we save save save!
So please, If your a parent to young children. Get out there! Don’t let them stop you! And if you don’t have children just yet, make sure travelling with the bubba is in your future plans!
Peace and Love.
xoxo
The Adventurous Mum 