Seasoned travelers can throw together a carry on backpack for a two week trip in 15 minutes in a pinch. Don’t expect to be able to do that with kids. Sadly, your carry-on only days are probably over for a while, and the stuff you need to bring will change every month or so. Remember to allow more time for everything.
Blessedly, we’ve still never missed a flight, but we’ve come very close a couple times. Recently, for the first time with-kid, we did manage a multi-week trip carry-on only again. It’s possible, but practice and particularly compact kid gear helps.
There are a couple of of really useful notions to internalize as you plan your parenting-on-the-road gig.
Avoid Buying Baby-Stuff You Can’t Travel With
You don’t need a travel baby bed and a home baby bed. You don’t need a travel car seat and a compact car seat. Make your only stroller your air travel stroller. Try to nudge your child towards a favorite stuffed animal that isn’t ginormous. For every piece of baby gear that you consider buying, imagine packing it up a dozen times or more, and if it’s worth its weight and space in your bag. Aside from saving you money, only having one set of gear will make it easier for your child to handle the transition between home and being on the road.
Cluster Critical Apointments When You’re Home
Where we live, the following stuff requires in-persons meeting, and usually has a relatively rigid timeline:
- Pediatrician:
- Standard checkups
- Vaccinations
- Beurocratic stuff:
- Paternity leave payments
- Day-care voucher (in countries where applicable)
- Day-care search
You’ll probably need a month or two after birth before you’re ready to hit the road. During that time try to figure out which things will need to happen when, and get these into a calendar.
In the first year of our son’s life, from the time we hit the road until my wife returned from maternity leave, we never were back in Berlin for more than two weeks at a time. Here, the stuff above has to happen on a pretty specific schedule. Get appointments booked far in advance so you can try to cluster them and plan travel around them.