BRONWYN’S STORY:

I completed a Master’s Degree by coursework in Bioethics when my eldest was fifteen-months-old. The reason I’m starting an article about travel with kids like this (bear with me) is that I feel it was a great achievement in the face of extreme sleep-deprivation, only nobody ever seems to care.

For example, when I put it forward as a potential topic to Emily-Jane, she said, yes, yes, certainly, or… travel. You could talk about travel also. And I thought well just one paragraph then. But then my husband said, “Gah!” so I said fine! and then I hid the paragraph at the bottom instead.

So here I am, now, staying completely on the topic of travelling with young kids

We’ve travelled with both our children, one of whom sleeps, and the other of whom sort of doesn’t. We’ve learned a lot of things from both types of experience, not least of which is that it’s very, very possible to keep adventuring with young children. When your child’s a sleep thief, however, you’ll want to do things a bit differently.

Planning

Packing

Getting There

On Vacation

Coming Home

Key Takeaways

I’ve heard people say that taking a baby on holiday is a bit like taking a baby on any kind of outing, except the outing is really long and really far away. This is true. It must be said, however, that holidaying with a typical child requires a bit of extra work. In contrast, Sleep Thieves are just as restless wherever they are, so you might as well be on a beach in Thailand.

One reallyreallyquick (if entirely irrelevant) paragraph about studying bioethics with a wakeful baby

If people were to ask me to rate how hard it is to study alongside a sleep thief on a scale of one to ten, I’d probably say well, on the one hand there was the screaming and the all-night waking and the screaming and waking and so forth, but on the other hand at least I had Kant and Mencius to help me decide whether it would be okay to strangle the wee one or not. (Tip! Mill isn’t as helpful on that front*.)

So don’t be afraid. Anyway, it’s not like you slept properly as a teenaged undergrad.

*Because Mencius and Kant champion things like principles and the inherent goodness of human beings, whereas Mill will ask you to think about what will produce the most happiness for the most people.

For more brilliant tips on travelling with children or to read about Bronwyn’s adventures visit Journeys Of The Fabulist. More Survivor stories can be found here…or for some ‘hot’ tips on how to survive a sleep thief check out my Survival Guide.  Feel free to share your travel stories below or join me for a chat on Facebook or Twitter.

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