Travelling with a Toddler
Getting ready for the first longer trip with our 1-year old boy made me realize how my wife and I have unknowingly devised a great strategy of buying cheap vs. expensive baby stuff.
I recently traveled to the US for work and noticed a lot of toddlers on the plane. Interestingly enough, there were no kids on the way there, just on the way back. Now that I think about it, maybe there were but I didn't notice them.
In fact, the reason I noticed this at all is that I saw a tired lady struggling with a 2-year-old and a stroller on the stairs connecting the gate to the plane. I helped her carry the stroller and realized the only reason no one from the airline is helping her is because she didn't speak the language and didn't realize when they were calling for people traveling with little children.
This got me thinking about our upcoming trip to Greece. It's a 7-hour drive I've done many times, but never with a 1-year old. The longest we have travelled with our son is less than 2 hours.
Naturally, I expect to replace the 1-2 stops along the way with many more. On one hand, he gets restless sitting strapped in for so long, and on the other, even though he's already a toddler, it's still not great for his spine to be in a car seat for so long.
It was much easier when I was a toddler. There were no car seats, so we travelled on someone's lap or playing with someone on the back seat. I guess it would be much easier to keep kids entertained if they could move more.
Hopefully, he'll happier facing forward for the first time. I know we're supposed to keep him facing backwards for a little longer, but he's become too inquisitive to be okay with that for more than a short city drive.
He's pretty much outgrown the baby basket seat, so we ordered a larger car seat facing forward (for up to 36kg). It's one of those purchases that I see a lot of people compromising with, getting cheap brands because it's all the same - a seat. And I strongly disagree with this sentiment.
I remember my father always used to tell me when I got my first car - never save money on tyres. It's literally the one spot where you are touching the road, so it makes sense to keep it as high quality as possible. I am thinking the same way for my son's car seat. In the rare chance that a higher safety score can prevent harm on my child, I am willing to pay any price.
That's my entire philosophy. He's in a period where he chews on his toys a lot. So, we only buy high-quality plastic or wooden ones. Honestly, I avoid wood, as it's almost always painted, and he starts flaking off the paint by chewing it. That's also why we got a high-end stroller when he was born. I wanted to make sure it was comfortable, protects his little body from all the horrible rattling on our beloved streets.
On the other side, we went for the cheapest pipe/fabric crib instead of a fancy wooden one, as it's all about the mattress which you buy separately anyway. The crib itself didn't add any value to the quality of his sleep. And following this philosophy, we went for a high-end car seat with a bunch of extra safety features.
Are they worth it? I hope we never find out.
Now, we are starting to think of games that my wife can play with our son to keep him entertained on the road while I drive. I'm also starting to pick good stops along the way - one every 30-40 minutes. We won't use all of them but it's good to have options.
All that's left is to install the new car seat (it's being delivered this afternoon) and start getting him used to face forward in the car.
My point is that with how demanding toddlers are and how extremely expensive the huge surrounding industry is, you have to make smart choices. I have a friend who bought a cheap stroller and a very fancy crib, and they ended up struggling whenever the street or sidewalk was busted (which is quite often in my home town) and buying a new stroller.
We spent the exact same amount, but split it the other way, and we couldn't be happier with our stroller. So, I really hope the car seat is the same success. After all, he'll use it for quite a while (36kg is a lot).
That's all I wanted to share this week. Thanks for reading and for helping me grow by sharing the newsletter with your friends and family. It's the only way new subscribers join, and it means a lot.
See you next week!
Best,
Dobri 🍃