‘These Tips Let Me Continue Traveling The World After I Had My Baby’


Growing up, I spent my childhood in a blue-collar town where international travel took a backseat to five-hour car rides to Grandma’s house. We did the occasional summertime camping trip and beach excursion, and once, we went to Disneyland. For us, a week in London was as far-fetched as a month on Mars.

I was twenty years old before I stepped foot on an airplane and into the great unknown of world travel. On a lark, I took all the money I’d saved waiting tables, and pushed it in front of a travel agent who helped me book a ticket from Los Angeles to Paris, and a return trip out of Rome. I thought I was going to see great artwork, historic monuments, beautiful beaches, and hoped to have fun doing it. And I did. But even more significantly, that trip was my first taste of real freedom. I returned home with a new sense of confidence, and the realization that the world is full of possibilities. I’ve been addicted to travel ever since. 

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I spent a good part of the next fifteen years following my traveler’s heart to places like Europe, South Africa, Hawaii and the Caribbean. When I first met the man who would become my future husband, he had not been avid traveler. I told him, “If you’re with me, you’re going to travel.” He has graciously (and sometimes begrudgingly) conceded. We caught an unseasonably warm March week in Verona, spent quiet days in a favorite little beach town in Mexico, and got married on the beach in Costa Rica. Although those early years were lean, we grabbed every opportunity to travel. 

And then we had a baby. 

To say that having a baby makes you want to stay on lockdown at home is an understatement.

Home is safe. Home has everything you need. The baby wipes are warm and the extra breast milk is in the freezer. Baby has come to know her routine, at-home natural baby remedies are at the ready, and a babysitter is finally on speed dial. After having my son, it would have been easy to put my travel lust on the top shelf, to dream of dusting it off for two weeks each summer, or more fully in retirement.

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But I am who I am: someone who loves to explore. And so, I’ve honed my travel skills to include a husband and a child.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the past five years about how to indulge in wanderlust as a family unit. I am mindful of budget, simplicity, and sanity without sacrificing the fun, and enrichment that travel bring. The wipes might be cold, but when you reach the beaches of Greece, no one will care.

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