The Travel Travails Of Being A Mommy With A Toddler And Child On Board!

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I have always prided myself on not being a judgmental woman who looks at another mommy with a young baby and sniffs her nose. Ya, well maybe, as a very young woman when I was not yet married, I may have thought that babies on a flight is like disaster you have no way of running away from, unless you choose to don a beautiful parachute and do a quick check out that wonderful door that looks out at some gorgeous view from up above….no, nah, I always knew that babies on a flight were more than just a handful, but even then I was never judging.

I can say I am a pro now when it comes to traveling with my daughters. Well, I was okay when I had just one kid. It was way easier, the luggage was lesser, and I could give her my undivided attention, which also works a lot (sometimes at least, is what I tell myself!).

But add to the picture another baby, double the luggage, crazy crowds at the airport, no one around to help really (unless you want to pay exorbitant prices for some ground handlers as charged specifically by different airlines), this mamma becomes quite a mess.

 

I have never really been scared of traveling alone with my children, but I guess I'm not the one who has to be, as I can almost always see it in the face of the other passengers (please add a devilish grin here from my end...hoohaahaa!)

I just returned last night from an almost 2 month long trip I took with my kids...it's the first ever time I have been out for so long, that too with kids....whoa! And it was an experience, most of the experience happening, yes, as you guessed, at the airports, and in the flight. My daughters are 7 years and 20 months and I literally carried our entire home with me....so you can imagine the kind of luggage I had...I can very proudly say that I beat EVERY single other passenger to being the one who carried the biggest and most amount of luggage......of course not to mention that I was insanelyyyyyy over limit....I am in fact sure now that the baggage allowance regulations have come into practice because of amazing mommies like me...how would airlines have otherwise made this added income if not for us?


So imagine me, alone, with the two children, a trolley that is so filled with luggage that I actually can't see a speck in front and was literally asking people to MOVE ! And on top of that, a heavy as a lovely bag of boulders kind of backpack on my bag, my baby sitting on top of the luggage, and my older one holding on to me for dear life, scared with soooo many travelers around....and me making the security checks and standing in queue and getting the boarding pass and changing the diapers and refilling the milk bottles and cleaning the spit and managing the of-course-I-will-vomit-and-pee-and-poop-all-at-the-same-time-when-you-really-cant-even-manage-to-shoo-a-fly-away-with-your-hand type of situation.....(all mommas who identify with this please pat your back please pat your back...and repeat the process again)

My younger one is the perfect example of how you can never be vigilant or active enough around a baby. She absolutely loves to eat and drink, and her levels of love for food and drink are not just limited to what I am getting her to have. Of course she makes a lunge at anything the passenger sitting next to me is eating or remotely trying to drink (I pity them, really, as they cower to the other side and try to stretch out of her grasp as best as they can, without blocking the aisle, but little do they know that toddlers are the ones with all the super power, and not us mere mortals!) and she will stand up in my lap and point at EVERY passenger behind and above our row to shout out in her baby voice 'UNCLE food, give me, UNCLE yumm, give me.' Many find it very cute, so they egg her on, and of course there are those who give me those looks that say 'you mommy!!! what exactly where you thinking when you booked the flight!!) I am always hoping that on one such flight, a kind hearted samaritan will come up to me and hand me a cheque, asking me to get that private jet for myself that will spare mankind the dangers of a diaper clad tiny sized superhuman...there is something called hope, right? ;)

From pulling someone's hair to pulling someone's saree to happily playing catch catch with her bottle and rolling it wayyyyyy beyond where I can humanly or even magically reach, we experience it all....on the flight, at the airport and everywhere....Most of the time the other passengers around are always always in love with my kids, calling them sweet and oh-they-are-so-cute-and-adorable, and little do they know the kind of terror they can actually unleash.......and how these comments actually act as a refueling source !

So in case, just in case, you happen to bump into a momma at the airport who is hauling truckloads of luggage and two pink girlies along, and the momma is dressed in cool clothes with a backpack and comfy walking shoes (I always wear boots when I am traveling alone though, just to update you on my style quotient) and sometimes a bandana on her head, either maintain your distance, or don't walk up to me and tell me that you read it all, and have been warned ;)

Cheerios and love and all the besties......

- Debolina Raja Gupta

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And like I always believe in and say:
'Heal the world we live in
Save it for our children' - MJ

Happy Parenting!!!! Be good to your little one, and to the millions of little ones out there who truly need every bit of love and compassion they can get.....Be a grown up...save the little ones.... Debolina Raja Gupta