With our busy and shifting schedules, often one of us ends up flying with Julia alone. It can be a fun father-daughter adventure, but it’s also a fair amount of work, and the logistics of check-in, security and boarding with luggage, a stroller, carry-ons and a wiggly toddler in tow can be a trial. After several of those trials, and a few errors, I think I’ve got a system down that works pretty well.
For me, the key is carrying just one piece of hand luggage for both of us. When we travel by car to Southampton on weekends, each of us has a canvas tote that we pop in the back of the dadwagon, usually along with David’s and my business bags. Transferring this tidy system to air travel didn’t work very well, though. The extra piece of hand luggage does seem to increase disproportionately the effort of the security ordeal, but this isn’t the real problem for me. The bag-bag-stroller-toddler system really breaks down after you gate-check the stroller. For me at least, it’s nearly impossible to struggle down the absurdly narrow isle of an airplane carrying a toddler and two bags without cursing, sweating through my shirt and whacking several poor fellow travelers on the shoulder, ear or face with a flailing foot or the trailing edge of a carry-on. And when you’re bringing a young child on a long, crowded flight, you really can’t afford to alienate people at the get-go. With just one bag, I have a fighting chance of maintaining a suitable parental demeanor.
The bag we’re currently using for Julia flights is the Coach Thompson Editorial Travel Bag, available at www.coach.com. It’s all leather, but still light (when empty) and spacious enough to hold my laptop, Julia’s diaper gear, snacks, reading material, and, of course, Mr. Goat.
P.s. If any of you have good toddler travel tips, I’d love to hear them.
