Home Alone: Road Trip

With both Snuggle Biscuit and I having work obligations in NYC on Monday and Tuesday we packed up Turtle Biscuit and followed the north star to the big apple.  And by North Star I mean the GPS on my smartphone.

We left Teen Biscuit and Singing Biscuit at home to fend for themselves.  Given that the house was still standing I can say this decision was a success at least in the Rumsfeldian view of Iraq definition of the word.

What I will say is that traveling with a baby is incredibly easy and incredibly hard.  It’s easy in the sense that they’re pretty much asleep the entire ride.  And for a short ride like NYC to DC, if you time it around their nap time, the trip is a breeze.

On the other hand, babies really love routines and anything that counters that routine can lead to all kinds of unforeseen effects.  Case in point, the drive up took longer than expected and therefore ended up bridging Turtle Biscuit’s two naps.  So once we arrived in NY and Turtle Biscuit was in an unfamiliar surrounding and being bombarded by new faces, she was completely overwhelmed.  Having two harried parents trying to make two different appointments  did not help either.

In the future, I think what Snuggle Biscuit & I (and this would be my advice to any parents traveling with an infant) should do is make sure we allocate some time for Turtle Biscuit to get acclimated to her surroundings. Parents should factor into the travel time 30min or so dedicated to easing the child in.  For example, if you’re pulling up at the in-laws for Thanksgiving, ask for some time alone with the child in a separate room, get her playing and comfortable and then slowly introducing her to the crowd.

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