being a mom
You Couldn’t Pay Me Enough To Pack My Baby In A Car And Brave Thanksgiving Day Traffic
The holidays have always been my favorite time of year, hands-down, starting from my birthday in mid-October (yes, it’s a holiday!) on to New Year’s Eve. This is my season, y’all. But gone are the days when I can do anything I darn well please on the holidays, including dressing up like a slutty fill-in-the-blank on Halloween and traveling cross-country to eat a delicious turkey dinner.
Babies mess up plans. It’s just what they do. Navigating the holidays is even harder when you’re trying to time a turkey in the oven and stick to a baby’s nap schedule.
Speaking of nap schedules, how the eff is it even possible to travel sanely with a baby for more than 30 minutes during the holidays? Maybe other parents have a secret game plan that I’m not privy to (i.e., drugging their baby), but my first son is notorious for screaming at the top of his lungs in the car for the last 20 percent of any major road trip we take. Fun.
I’ve also nearly given myself a stroke blackout in one eye by twisting uncomfortably from the front seat into the back (while still wearing a seatbelt) to feed my hungry son a bottle en route. Most of the milk usually ends up spilled all over his face, and I poke him repeatedly in the eye with the nipple every time we hit a bump.
Somehow, we manage to get in the most ridiculous traffic gridlocks that add hours to our trip any time we travel with the entire family. At a dead stop on the highway, I’m usually praying for the baby to fall/stay asleep and for my toddler to stay interested in his sippy cup/shoelace/anything else I can chuck at him from the front seat.
I haven’t even factored in the actual packing for the trip. Even a short trip, say an hour, warrants a 2 to 3 page packing list for both kids, though my husband scoffs at me for this. (It gets results!) And without fail, I always manage to forget something fairly important, like baby food, a pack n’ play, or a booster seat, making the juggling of the holiday in a new environment all the more stressful.
