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?

Traveling Alone With Both My Kids For The First Time: A Few Practical Tips That Helped

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So recently I traveled with my 1 year old and my 7 year old. We have traveled with our baby earlier, but it was always me and my hubby managing both of them. This time it was going to be just me, and I must say I had some reservations initially, but then decided what the heck....it was an airport and a flight and wouldn't be so difficult after all.

I will also add that I traveled during the Diwali holidays and the airport at Mumbai was crazily crowded. Too many people, every one had excess baggage, huge queues at the boarding pass counters and too much noise and crowd. Enough to bug even an adult, and my younger one is anyways not  fond of strangers at all, and is going through a severe separation anxiety case for the past almost 4-5 months now!

So here's a few things I did that did help me and even though it was a little difficult, it was still manageable.