Thursday, April 12, 2012

Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium: Travel Troubles

When my children were little, we lived in Beijing, China for two years, and had to do quite a bit of traveling to get back to the States. Looking back, I don't know how I did it. I had a 6 year old, 4 year old, and a 1 year old. My husband couldn't leave when I did, so I had to bring 3 kids home alone! That may not sound too hard, but it involved about 14 hours of plane travel, not to mention countless hours in airports waiting for our next flight. My kids were tired of being cooped up, and were just plain tired from the time change. I tried to plan games and toys to keep them occupied, but it was a very tiring and patience trying time for me.

I have one vivid memory of dragging our carry-on luggage, while carrying my baby. I looked up to see my 4 year old son jumping over other people's luggage. There was a chalkboard with wheels, and he promptly ran over and began pushing it all around. Luckily, I had brought a child's harness with me, so I put it on him so I could keep him on leash. Some parents might think it demeaning to use a harness on a child. But I had seen that child run from me once, and head directly to an elevator. He went inside, and the doors shut. He went up, but I couldn't tell if he got off the elevator, and had no idea which floor he would land on. I didn't know what to do, but finally decided to wait by the elevator door. Sure enough, he rode it all the way back down, and I was able to corral him. So this is why I resorted to a harness.

A couple of humorous things did happen. My son was pushing a button on his arm rest. Click, click, click click. "Mom, what is this button for?" Me: "Um, you need to stop pushing that, because it tells the stewardess to come." A few minutes went by. "Mom, I keep pushing the button, but the stewardess isn't coming." oops...

Then when we were having our lunch, my son took the small creamer cup and opened it up. "Hey look Mom, MILK!" He promptly drank the small mouthful. :)

I used to really like to go to airports. My husband travelled a lot, and I used to love it when I had to take him to the airport. That love of airports ended after being stuck in them for hours at a time. I still love to travel, but I love the arrival much more than the actual travelling.

If you would like to see what trouble the other members had with travel, and with this topic, please check their links below.
Rummuser, Anu, Ashkok, Gaelikka, Grannymar, , Padmum, Magpie11, andAkanksha,Will Knot, Maria the Silver Fox, Anki, Nema Noor Paul Plain Joe, and Rohit
and The Old Fossil

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6 comments:

padmum said...

I too used to travel with my kids quite a few times. Thank God they were readers and passed the time easily. Their first train travel was tiring as my son climbed up to the upper birth and down every five minutes!

I too have gone to the airport many, many times as my husband was out 3 days in aweek (average).

Grannymar said...

I had only one with a battery that never ran down. Our salvation when when she learned to read at the age of four!

I remember travelling to Scotland by car. The ferry journey was slow back then, about three hours all told. Elly never stopped moving, so jack put her reins on and walked up and down the boat. Many times we laughed at the idea of Elly walking all the way to Scotland!

Inklings said...

I had one of mine run into an elevator like that, and she wasn't even two yet...pretty scary, but it all ended well, even though she got out on another floor.

Rummuser said...

I have seen mothers like you in many airports and used to wonder about the harness! It makes sense now, after all these years. One keeps learning all the time!

Vid said...

I've never been on an airplane before... all of our family vacations have been in the car.

blackwatertown said...

Three children on a long distance flight - exhausting. And as for reins - whatever works!
In the spirit of avoiding DVT, I was happy to let my Top Boy wander the aircraft aisles chatting to people, while my Top Girl sings along to music in her headphones. And you know what singing sounds like when you can't hear yourself. Only a father could love it.