I guess its all common sense really and I think I'm just looking for someone to tell me I'm not completely barmy taking her on my own and it will all go swimmingly well!!!
Travelling with children??? You must be absolutly crackers!!!! 😊
I am joking of course.... Sharing your passion with your children and showing them the world is never a stupid idea IMO. At that age they may not remember the details of the trip but hopefully it'll influence them positively in less apparent ways.
My Wife and I are travelling at the moment with our two (very young) children. The eldest is 2 and a half, and the youngest is 1 and 4 months. I won't lie, it can be very hard at times, but I was a stay at home dad for 7 months before we left and I can honesly say it's bloody hard sometimes taking care of children at home.
We haven't done anything the easy way, we are currently in Vietnam, having come completely overland from Berlin. There have been times when we've been overwhelmed, sleepless night after sleepless night, followed by the endless energy being forced on you by frantic toddlers just makes you want to shut yourself away in a room, but of course you can't.
I know I'm making this seem a little negative but it's all too easy to complain... We took them to see the water puppets in Hanoi today and the look of wonder on their faces will stay with me for a while. We went to a hot spring in southern China, and they both went nuts and kept going all day with no naps finally burning out in the taxi on the way back to the Hostel. I feel guilty sometimes that they don't get to play with the endless amounts of toys that they had back home but they find amusement in pretty much everything they come across. Every water bottle becomes a rocket, every A/C remote a train....
It terms of practicalities involved with travel, the only thing you really need is a well stocked medicine bag. Calpol (every parents best friend), cough mixture, plasters with winnie the pooh on, general first aid stuff. Not sure if your toddler is trained yet (our eldest is thankfully, youngest obviously isn't), nappies are widely available, but in some places the price may frighten the crap out of you. Make sure she can drink through a straw, that way she can pretty much drink anything, regardless of what container it comes in.
Other than that, I think the main thing to do is try to relax, you need to be fairly laid back to deal with what inevitably happens with youngsters. Our eldest banged his eye on a windowsill a week ago, big cut, loads of blood, looks terrible. The youngest has just fell over (he's still pretty rubbish at walking) and scraped up his beautiful face, looks terrible but nothing serious 😞 . Also for some reason they both just seem to attract dirt, we dress them neatly every morning, and within 10 minutes they both look like street children, they're going to have the best immune systems ever after this trip.
As for destination, well that's a matter of personal choice but bear in mind that there is now a lot of things you're just not going to be able to do. I'd always choose Asia as I love it and it's relatively safe and like Mell says they truly love children here. My eldest though is starting to get seriously fed up of being constantly poked/touched/stroked by random people, something he clearly isn't used to coming from the UK.
Oh... bring a pushchair... the roads and pavements have been seriously crap pretty much everywhere, there are no ramps and there's steps everywhere so getting it about requires effort but it's still a lifesaver as their little legs can only carry them so far. Both of ours were sling babies but with all the rest of the crap we're carrying, this clearly wasn't an option. We've got cheap ones from Mothercare and they've been stunning, one's getting a bit wobbly but it's better travelled than most people I know so I still can't fault it!
If there's anything more you need to know, don't hesitate to ask. Hope any of this helps.
Be proud of yourself for even considering what you want to do... Travelling with children isn't easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it.
Mike.
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