The Jersey City Independent "

Share/Save

We’ve spent much of the last six weeks traveling on and off. Happily nothing horrible happened that matched the outright hostility we got during our trip to Montana early this year. But traveling with a two-year-old is tricky in the best of times and can be grueling when you make a long slog — besides the previously mentioned Montreal there have been treks by plane to Brazil and by car to Wisconsin and Minnesota. There’s the insane number of things needed — stroller (which we forgot for a quick weekend in Montreal), car seat, diapers, toys, not to mention clothes, toiletries and passports. Then there’s the fact that you are in environments that can be child unfriendly or even dangerous.

Regardless of your mode of transportation, each way has its pluses and minuses. Planes get you there faster and kids under age two can ride free on your lap or hopefully in the empty seat next to you. Cars take more time but you are on your own schedule and in control of the environment (or don’t have to worry if junior has a hissy fit). Cars are obviously cheaper and mean you don’t need a car rental on the other end. While car rides are fun for Dash, the kid loves to fly and continually points out planes in the sky when we are outside doing our day to day.

That said, kids will be kids, which is to say that they are human. This means there’s no predicting sleep patterns. We stayed in a wonderful condo on the beach in Rio and it had a nice room and bed for Dash. It was dark and quiet, which would seem great for naps. But even so, Dash got up in the night sometimes. This would make him a bit grumpy at times during the day, but he was more or less a trooper who did fine. Perhaps it was all the coconut water and walks on the beach as well as trips to the local playgrounds, which were a little shoddy but the kids were nice.

The worst was Wisconsin. Like much of the Northland, the woods of Door County are a haven for mosquitoes. Dash even has problems here in Jersey City, where bites swell up like welts if he scratches them. At home he’ll get a few bites if he cruises around the garden paths of Van Vorst Park or plays at the water fountain, but in Wisconsin five minutes outside running around without bug spray would leave his legs and arms dotted with bites. He’ll even get some through his shirt. With bug spray he still gets them and it creates havoc.

A two-year-old covered in bug bites is a problem. You can’t really rationalize with them about not scratching, which means they get scratched and infected. Even if you apply anti-itch medicine like Benadryl it wears off and then they scratch. So Dash looked like he some sort of plague. Worse was the fact that the itching meant that he would wake up during the night and not be able to fall back to sleep immediately, which seemed like a tremendous waste considering the fact that it was pitch black out with no sounds but crickets. Finally I ended up sleeping in the bed with him just to be on hand to calm him down before he got worked up.

We carried on to Minneapolis to visit family and friends after Wisconsin. Dash once again had his own room at our cousin’s house. Despite sleeping in a Pack ‘n’ Play that he was too big for in a room that didn’t have any blackout shades, he slept like a champ — long naps and no problems at night. Maybe he missed the city or something.

Long story short, there’s no predicting how your kid is going to react (consciously or subconsciously) to travel. Dash has done more than his fair share and he sometimes seems to do better than his dad with it, but when everything around you has the sheen of new, maybe it doesn’t really matter whether you are home or not. It’s all new regardless. So any readers out there on the fence about summer travels? I say go for it. The kids will do better than you think.