Vacation Packing
I am not naturally a light packer, however one very traumatic day has made me so. That is a very long story about what felt like an even longer day, involving a trans-Pacific relocation, a toddler’s burst ear-drum, last minute packing, mis-reading the flight time and arriving five minutes before check-in closed and WAY too much luggage.
It was April 2017 and my husband’s role was relocated to San Francisco, my husband, myself and our seventeen-month-old son were on the move. I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but at the time, flights to the US had the most baggage allowance, and as we were moving there with a toddler, I wanted to take advantage of this. We thought we were being smart and taking advantage of our baggage allowance and packed:
6 checked bags
3 carry on bags
pram (stroller / pushchair)
car seat
portacot (pack and play)
Trying to get this much through the airport, running late, with the toddler who had an ear infection was one of the most stressful days of my life, and I swore that I would never relive it, and I haven’t.
Since then, I pack lightly and whilst we have had some stressful moments in airports (one being holding my five-year-old daughter up so that she could vomit in the food court bin next to a lovely family just trying to eat their McMuffins at 6am), I’ve never again felt the hopeless feeling of not knowing how we are going to get ourselves, our numerous barangs and our sick and tantruming toddler through the airport and onto the plane in time.
We are no longer limited by the number of bags and weight that the airline allows us, we are limited by what one of the parents would be able to manage on their own. We have had times when both kids needed to be carried through an airport and on a good day, I will always want to hold my kids' hands so they don't get lost or separated whilst travelling.
We are lucky to be a two-parent family and have chosen to only have two children so that we can run both a man and zone defence. This way one parent can be managing the kids and other the bags.
We don’t do small trips either. In the middle of the year, we try to take two or three weeks off to escape the winter chill and go somewhere warm. We also sometimes travel from country to country, and climate to climate. Last year we travelled to the tropical island of Fiji and then directly onto the slightly less tropical South Island of New Zealand. We needed clothes for all seasons and I didn't want to be weighed down with luggage.
So how do you do it? Well I'll tell you exactly how next time.
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