Debbie: Great story :-) And you made me laugh when you mentioned that travel with kids is something we figure out after trial and error, and then we forget about a lot of it as we move onto the next stage. Doesn’t that just describe parenthood in a nutshell? A friend recently said she was worried about starting a family because she remembered my son crying incessantly during the first three months. My response was, “Did he? I don’t remember …” which is, I’m sure, the only reason we ever go for kid #2.

Mara: Thanks for that link, too! Looks like I’m going to have to keep on this topic, there’s such a growing community out there. And I think having parents talk about real-life experiences is a great idea. It can all be so individual — your Air India experience with car seats is a case in point. Airlines are all over the map when it comes to bringing little ones on board.

And one more thing - we have tried to use the carseat on international flights and have had problems, most recently on Air India. We ended up having to check it at the door of the plane - very frustrating, as I feel that it is safer for little ones to be in carseats on the plane. Also helps them sleep better.

My children are older now (3 and 6) and I have started my own blog where I talk about traveling with kids; I’d like to make it a place where other parents with real-life experiences and ideas post too. Anyone who is interested can take a gander and drop me an e-mail. The blog is available at motherofalltrips@blogspot.com.

Also note that the blog is in early stages of development - I haven’t even put links to other sites in. I definitely will be working on adding lots more content.

I know I don’t have to encourage you to keep getting out there and traveling, but I will say this… it gets easier every time. At 3 years old my son can take his own shoes off at the security checkpoint, put his bag up on the conveyor belt, and walk through on his own. My daughter (21 months) hasn’t mastered the shoes yet, but both kids know exactly what to do during takeoff and landing. We hand them a sippy cup or a cup with a straw & they decide when a sip will help relieve the pressure in their ears.

Feel free to email me with questions before your next trip. I’m writing as fast as I can over at DeliciousBaby, but I find that I write my best articles when I have a real-world question to answer… debbie AT deliciousbaby DOT com

Debbie

In a way I’m glad I didn’t know all these resources existed before our first trip - in spite of exhaustive internet searches - because then I wouldn’t have been motivated to start my site!

I was lucky enough to be featured in a great article recently for The Canadian Press. It’s refreshing since most articles these days seem to be about entitled parents mowing people down with giant strollers…

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jp7QGSzpKctQDn9fXBqp8tNX_ewQ