2018 Thanksgiving Trip - part 1

Off we are to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with Friends. As usual, traveling with kids takes enormous preparation and patience. The first fight breaks out even while we book the tickets - who will get the window seats. Diya starts calling “dibs” well before the thought crosses Aadi’s mind and once he does get into the dialogue, endless negotiations begin.

The next battle is on packing (not so) light. The kids seem to not get the idea that the whole point of traveling is to experience “newness” - something that will be lost if we were to bring all our toys, drawing and coloring materials, books, stuffed animals and even the “pink blankie” ... living in US, they take it for granted that they will be allowed a stroller bag and a backpack each for carry on and I will pack whatever else we need and check in bags if the trip is any longer than a long weekend. If we are traveling by road ... get ready for a U-haul full of stuff. Must get them to get out of this mindset if we are to travel around the world with them, as we dream to do someday.

Then follow the continued battles that emerge from extreme case on self-reliance and independence that everyone in the family seems to be afflicted with. These range from debates of where to eat and who will sit next to whom at the restaurant, which places to visit - in what order, I don’t want to be in a picture and if you do take a picture you cannot lost it anywhere etc etc etc. ( for example - taking the above picture took threats to cancel Christmas if they refused to pose together AND smile - thus prompting this blog entry!)

Sometimes I just get overwhelmed thinking about all this and wonder how do we make it thru these trips and why do we ever plan the next one. And other times ... like today ... I wonder, if it was easy would it be so memorable? For example, today we were reminiscing about the trip when Aadi used the bathroom 17 times - of course while sitting in the window seat, so we all had to get up EVERY time! No one could remember when was this trip or where we were going, but the potty trips will be remembered into posterity!!!