Me with the kids, road-tripping. Credit: Flickr user TGKW
My voice has been a little mute around the ‘Wagon these days. That’s largely because I’ve been in Austin trying to figure out just who is going to pay for this here DadWagon blog: I’ve had great conversations with the folks from Babble, with Gretchen Rubin, with our DadBlogger buddies, even Guy Kawasaki, who I think told me that we are essentially fucked.
Look for a piece on Time.com tomorrow that gives a full roundup of my oleaginous attempts at “buying in” (as opposed to “selling out”) at South by Southwest.
In the meantime, here’s a weird instinct I have. My wife just flew to Houston for a week of seminarin’ (that’s the Texas word for it), and I am platooning with the babysitter for the week. But I can’t really handle that. There’s something about being with the kids by myself in our home explaining for the thousandth time that mama is going to be home soon that I find oppressive. So rather than deal with that, I’m taking a few days off work and heading on the road with the babies.
This is, I suppose, odd. Traveling is not supereasy with kids. We’re not going far–just driving to Baltimore and DC–but it does mean sleeping on a few different couches, some which we’ll probably have to share with dogs. And car rides are not always the most fun either (though my kids are, fyi, both front-facing).
But at least in travel there’s motion, and commotion, and something new, which keeps the kids disoriented enough that they often forget to whine about getting chocolates before lunch or, again, about where the hell their mother is.
The only problem? Travel has always been a literal escape for me, a way of running away from whatever it is I’m looking to put behind me, even if only for a few days. Like Matt, I’m somewhat addicted to traveling, in a way that often conflicts with my better instincts about parenting. And by roping my kids in, I’m doing more than giving them a fun bit of away-time with their dad. I’m also modeling the same happyfeet that will either bless or curse them throughout their lives.
I often take the kids on a day-trip of some kind if I have a bunch of time to kill with them solo. The forward momentum and break in the routine help head off discipline problems and pass the time. The worst days are stuck at home for over three 4 hours or so. They end up fighting and destroying the house which is not good for ensuring domestic tranquility. I haven’t taken them on overnight trips (other than to my parents house, which lightens my parental load). I’m sure they’d do fine though.
I can relate, btw. Before I met Tomoko, JP and I used to road trip on our weekends, and even on regular weekdays I was always looking around for things for us to do outside of the house. Sometimes we’d just ride the train. Home was too empty. –Theodore