Family and vacation are two words that should never be used together at the same time: unless it’s meant as a joke. Traveling with kids on vacation does not excuse you from 3 am wake up calls. There is still someone other than your spouse crawling into your bed at night. There are still three square meals and untold number of snacks to provide. True, it may be more fun to scrub someone else's kitchen floor or vacuum sand off someone else’s couch, but let’s be frank: ‘family vacation’ is the quintessential oxymoron: like cheap tickets or simple assembly.

That being said, traveling is the one luxury I wasn’t willing to give up upon becoming a parent. I decided to just ‘tough it through’, keeping my goal in mind. We packed extra suitcases and took the kids along with us wherever we went in the world. We did no research, little planning and almost zero preparation. What we did was forge ahead and, I’m proud to say, while it wasn’t always pretty at least we survived.

If you’re the type to have a nanny for each child in tow, a ‘baby nanny’ for the baby and; a cache of people helping you travel, then please go to another blog immediately. You’ll hate what I say. To be more exact: you won’t understand it. You’ll ask yourself again and again ‘why doesn’t this poor woman just pay somebody to take care of everything and her problems will go away?’

So, I’ll explain just this one time and not mention it again: we don’t have a lot of money. I like that saying because it implies we have ‘some’ money. Actually, we don’t have ‘some’ money. More precisely, we have ‘little to no’ money but we do have credit cards. And, everyone knows that help doesn’t take credit cards. But, when they do, my problems will be solved and this discussion will duly end.

These stories are a collection of our experiences of Traveling with Small Children: the good, the bad, the ugly. I exaggerate a little for creative license; but, for the most part, everything is true. Those of you looking for hard facts: go to the end of each essay and you’ll see some information that might be more useful vs. my ranting and raving. But I don’t guarantee everything is perfectly correct. I am, after all, a bit distracted at all times and can’t keep anything straight.

I’m dedicating these stories to those of you who are in the trenches of ‘childrendom.’ Those of you who love the sound of a train leaving the station, the plane taking off, the packed car revving; yet, can’t quite figure out how to get from there to here. This is for those of you who travel with nothing but diapers packed in Sam’s Club suitcases. These stories are to encourage travelers who, in their youth thought nothing of packing a rucksack & sticking out a thumb but now feel somehow the family might not benefit from such casual planning.

I truly hope our mistakes can be educational to someone, anyone. Maybe you can use this information to avoid potholes, go around major obstacles, but still look out the window and enjoy the view. Most importantly, I hope you continue to travel with your small children and enjoy the time with your family even while on the dreaded ‘family vacation.’

Bon Voyage and remember: chewed candy in the left pocket, passports in the right – and never the two shall twain – Camille