Survive Family Travel

When it comes to travel with young children, it can feel overwhelming to even take the first step in planning.

This blog endeavors to be an exploration of what works for family travel and how I manage to get from point A to point B without losing anyone or my mind.

There will be wins and huge failures. Dumpster fire failures, if my daughter has anything to do with it. She is the reason the "survive" part is in the blog title. If we all survive, then it is a success. Maybe we can eventually change this to "Surviving and Thriving During Family Travel".

What are we working with?

Team Parent:

Myself and Husband: I am a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I like starting projects and never finishing them. I'm told this is what Leonardo DaVinci used to do ... so I'm in good company. The house is strewn with my half-done painting, renovation, and sewing projects that we may also explore in this blogging space. I don't really know what my vocation in life is yet, so... here's to figuring that out before I die.

Husband is a full-time teacher - dealing with other peoples' kids all day and then coming home to deal with his own (along with whatever drama I seem to have scraped together by dinner-time).

Team Kid:

Son #1: 12yo. Willing to do pretty much anything as long as it's not too exciting. Level-headed. The one I roll my eyes at when the middle child does something completely insane.

Daughter #1: 8yo. Confuses the heck out of me. Diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder - which is exactly what it sounds like. She argues everything, fights everything, yells, screams, doesn't do a 5-second task because she doesn't want to and ends up making it take 3 hours instead. Sometimes she'll give me a hug or say she likes my cooking. We take the wins when we can get them.

*Updated to add: We have had much success with the Feingold Diet - which we are stumbling through without purchasing the recommended $80 shopping list (because I basically cook everything from scratch anyway). Tantrums are fewer and far between and she actually sits and reads independently now. Thank God!

Son #2: 3yo. Sweet, talkative, loves music and trains. Typical adorable preschooler with hardly any of the tantrums.

We'll start with a few posts around my hometown, then hopefully take a journey or two. See you soon!