Every parent will undoubtedly agree that parenthood is something you can never be fully prepared for and that a child will definitely cause changes in your life. Off course, this doesn’t mean you have to become a servant to the child, or to give up all the things you were used to – but you will have to make some compromises. But what should you pay attention to? What are the things where you compromise?
When it comes to traveling, many things, and it starts with the planning. You must organize the trip in such a way that it fits the youngest traveller that comes along. Especially from the moment on, when this traveller (in my case it’s a little girl) begins to walk.
A child needs to move! This means you have to stop every now and again to allow the child to move freely, to play… and if possible it should be somewhere in nature where it’s no too hot. Traveling by public transport just won’t allow you to do that. This doesn’t mean you cannot take a toddler on a bus, but once a child starts walking, it just can’t be still for too long and those short breaks that the bus may make are just not long enough and probably not in a suitable place for a child to relax (a gas stop along the motorway – for example).
Next you should think about what to take with you for the road, for the stop overs and naturally for the stay. If you’re using a blender to prepare the food, you should naturally take it with you, but you should make sure, you’ll have somewhere to wash it. And never forget, there are different standards for power sockets in different lands (this is also important for your other electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, etc.). And your toddler will, naturally, need things to play with. Taking huge stuffed teddy bears is not a good choice, but you should have a plastic bucket, a spade for the sandbox and things like that. Even if on the beach, a toddler will need something to play with, to be animated.
You will also always want to have some medicine along (at least paracetamol in case of fever), as anything can happen. But regardless of what you take with you, it’s always good to have a well-stocked store nearby as you can run out of things, or maybe you’ve forgotten something, or it was accidentally (pronounced – the child did it) spilled, broken, fell out the window… The accommodation itself should also be selected accordingly. It should always have the possibility of preparing warm meals (or at least heating them) and you should be able to do your laundry. There should be no “dangers” in sight – such as a balcony fence where a child can climb through or over, power sockets that temp little fingers and it should not be a place with too harsh of a night time silence.
All of the above made us decide to visit the Italian coast of golden sand – Lignano Sabbiadoro
The city offers an endless sand beach and shallow water. Off course, you can’t leave a child unsupervised until it’s independent enough (and even then you should be able to have eye contact), but a shallow beach is a good thing. You have things under a much better control while in water. The beach itself has many watchtowers with life guards, so there’s always a competent person nearby to offer help if needed. We had luck with our apartment, as it included a free garage, so we were able to get there by car and not worry where to leave it. The apartment itself included a stove and a washing machine. There was no internet access, but I really didn’t miss the online connection – in just contributed to a real vacation. AC is self-evident, so it just had to be there. And when a night came that a new tooth started coming out – as they don’t chose when they’ll grow – the loud cries didn’t bother any other guest, so nobody was complaining, or try to get us thrown out. The city also have many medics and a hospital, but above all there are pharmacies and people there speak German really well and English is not too foreign of a language either (as there’s always something more you’ll need – from balm after a mosquito bite onwards). But the most important thing for me was that Italy and Slovenia are both within the Schengen borders and there was no waiting crossing from one country into the other. This meant no unnecessary stoppings and that we could return back quickly is anything went wrong. The fact that the city offers many attractions interesting to a child (and a grown-up) and can make even a rainy day (nobody wants bad weather while at the seaside) fun and interesting, was just an added bonus. Thus the ZOO and the children theme park were very well visited, when clouds came around knocking.
Sure, every parent decided about how and what… but I’m sure no parent can be happy on a holiday if a child is miserable, it’s just not a real vacation then.
Borut Jurišić
