Traveling With Young Kids

Traveling With Young Kids

Do you dread traveling with young kids? Is it more work than fun?

Today, I will be talking about a recent overnight family vacation and our experience with three young kids.

I will be sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I will also share what I have learned through this experience.

I would love to connect with you on Facebook and feel free to join our group, Thriving Fatherhood, where I offer more on how to thrive in fatherhood.

Transcript

Episode 24 Traveling with Young Kids

Welcome to the Thriving Fatherhood Podcast, where we are living and working in the trenches to go from surviving to thriving in this mission field called fatherhood. 

My name is Brian Knight. I am a father of three, a husband, a son, a coach, and a believer in Jesus Christ.

Today, I am going to be talking about a recent trip my family and I took over the Labor Day weekend. This is our first overnight trip as a family in almost three years. We have been so busy with just life, and honestly, vacations are not vacationing anymore, they are work. Can you guys relate out there. My wife has mentioned in the past about us taking a trip to Disney World. I told her, number one I want all the children to be born and old enough to remember the experience. Two I will need a week just to recover from the trip.

So, this past Labor Day Weekend we were invited by my uncle to stay at his beach house on Folly Beach. We really try not to turn down any opportunity we get stay at his place. The beach is so peaceful and beautiful where he lives. More on that later. 

At first, he offered us one room. Bethany, was not excited about that option. At first, I could not understand why, and then she said are you looking forward to staying the night in one room with three young kids. I did not have to think about that long before I knew what she meant. I let my uncle know I would have to turn down his hospitality and why. He responded back the next day with I have two rooms you guys can stay in. I let Bethany know and she was like YES!!!

 So, we started packing up Saturday night and went to church on Sunday. We got home from church around 1230, fed the kids, finished packing and we were able to leave shortly after three. As many of you know I am a health nut and I am not a big fan of what it cost to eat out these days. So, we had our own food packed, toys, pillows, fans, everything but the kitchen sink, all to stay one night.  Hey when you are traveling with three kids and the nearest store is twenty minutes away and an omelet cost a minimum of 16 dollars at your local hole in the wall restaurant you need to be prepared for anything.  We were kind of out of practice because we had not traveled in so long, due to it being easier to just stay at home.

We arrived to Folly Beach around 430pm in the afternoon. We did hit some traffic on the way, so it took us about an hour to get there. We had already heard “are we there yet” about twenty times from my oldest son. My whole family was at my uncle’s house and at his neighbor’s house who was letting us stay there for the weekend. My son wanted to play when we got there, but I told him it will be better if we unload the car now, set everything up and then play later. 

After we got setup and everything was in the house, it was time to eat. My aunt had worked very hard to but together a great meal of fajitas and it was delicious. After that we went out to the beach and the kids had a blast. Asher, my oldest son, loves the ocean. My daughter is still afraid of it in some aspects. Based on this experience we are definitely signing Asher and possibly Katie up for swim lessons next Summer.  

When we got home from the beach, we had the kids start doing their normal routine at home of taking a bath, brushing their teeth, and getting ready for bed. We read them a book and prayed with them. Then my son loves to get scratched and so I did that to sort of bond with him. My mom was there and helped out with Wesley who is our youngest and actually when she came over, he was asleep in her arms. So she just laid him down in the pack and play and he was able to stay asleep. When we transfer him to his crib or a pack and play we are always holding our breath hoping he does not wake up.

I believe I went to bed shortly after 9pm, and Bethany went to bed around 10pm. We like to go to bed the same time in a perfect world, but she seems to be more wired at night than I am. Anyways, I wish I could tell you that everyone slept through the night and we all woke up at 700am feeling refreshed and energized to go play on the beach, but that is not what happened. 

Both older kids did try to get up shortly before we went to bed, but they were easily put back in their room and went to sleep. I may have mentioned that my son has had a lot of ear infections in the past, well, he did put his head under water a couple of times while playing at the beach. Bethany slept in the master with the pack and play. I was scared I might trip over it in the middle of night and if the baby woke up it would wake both of us up. So, I slept in a different room since it was available. 

I woke up one time and had a little difficulty getting back to sleep. The mattress is nothing like ours at home that we sleep on. When I got up at 5am, Bethany was up in the living room with Wesley I believe, and my son Asher had been up since around 1am. One of his ears was hurting from getting submerged while playing at the beach. I was saying he is proned to ear infections, but he has not had to have tubes. We are hoping he grows out of this and never ends up needing tubes in his ears.

Bethany was going on only three hours sleep. Fortunately, my daughter was sleeping well and the baby had slept well during the night. I rubbed Ashers head for a while and we turned the tv off and within ten minutes he was out. We did not have any Motrin to give him for ear pain.  I believe Bethany put the baby down for a nap and she said when he woke up for me to call her. She was going to lie down and get some sleep. 

I knew she needed some sleep and I was not planning to call her when he did wake up. I believe it was about 630 at this time and I was watching the baby while everyone else was sleeping. I was also finishing up my coffee. So, honestly, I was ready to go. I thought to myself it would be nice to take the baby for a walk with me on the beach. I knew my wife had brought the Tula with her, but I had never put it on by myself and holding the baby, but I decided I was going to figure it out. It took literally five minutes and I had him strapped to my chest. I grabbed my flip flops and quietly went out the front door since Asher was sleeping on the couch in the living room. 

I headed over to the Beach, nobody was on the road and I was on beach front in literally three minutes. The sun was just coming up over the horizon. My son Wesley was very bright eyed and looking all around in amazement. I arrived at 653am and there were surprisingly a lot of people on the beach already. It was low tide and just breath taking.  I saw at least thirty on my walk. I knew I needed to do a walk that day and my son took the place of my weighted vest. The temperature was perfect and one of the best parts was watching the sun rise over the horizon and seeing Wesley look in amazement at the surroundings and the sun coming up. I walked for about 45 minutes that morning and the people were so friendly. I was the only one with a baby strapped to his chest, but I think a lot of people thought it was cute to see a baby strapped to a father’s chest that early in the morning. Honestly, when I look back this was one of the highlights of my trip to Folly Beach. It was real magical time to bond with my youngest son. I was able to take some great photos of him and me together as well. If you would like to see those check out my FB page. I will be posting those there soon. 

When I got back, most of the crew was up and seemed to be feeling better. Bethany started to make us breakfast and the kids played in the living room. I will spare you the rest of the story, but we got back to our house shortly after noon that same day. So, it was a fast trip. All in All, I do not think we were away from our house for more than 24 hours, but it felt like two or three days.

What did we learn from this trip?

We learned we still love to travel; it is just different from when we were single and did not have kids in toe.  Seeing the kids experience new things and the wonder on their faces is a major part of the enjoyment I know I personally experience. It would be hard to imaging a trip by myself anymore, I think I would feel kind of lonely and bored without the family. 

It is hard to travel with three young kids, but not impossible. Each trip is work, but it can be done if Bethany and I are willing to put in the effort. And, when we look back, despite all the challenges and sleepless nights, it is worth it for the memories.

Don’t expect to get a lot of rest. You think of vacations as a time to rest up and get caught up on reading. Ha, not with young kids going with you. At this age, somebody always needs something. 

We still love and appreciate our own home. We were so happy to come home. Where everything works, we have what we need, and we have our systems and routines. All of us seem to operate better in this environment. I think this is what makes it so hard to leave our house and threaten our routine that has taken so long to establish. 

Last, my son needs ear plugs while he is in the ocean or the pool, or frankly, anytime he is submerging his head under water if we do not want to end up with ear infections. 

So, that is what I have for you today; if you feel this show has been valuable for you, I encourage you to share it with one other father who could gain some insight from it and wants more thriving in their lives. 

Also, I would love to hear about your experiences traveling with younger children. What were the challenges for you, what were the unexpected joys, what did you learn? Please share that with me in the comments below.