Travelling

Now that I've tantalized you all with my beautiful pictures of rainy Scotland (there are more - and they are not all rainy!) you have to listen to me philosophize a bit. Lucky you! (And "you" appear to be one person. Hello lonely follower!)

As K's birth approached, we were told by everyone and their dog what to expect in the coming months. Our lives would be over, we would never be the same again, we could say goodbye to all the things that we love in life, especially travelling.

I suppose that getting this "advice" is a kind of rite of passage for new parents. The more experienced parents are eager to share what they have learned on their journey and perhaps more maliciously are happy to see that more people are joining their ranks and will now understand what it's really like. I appreciated the help that people want to give us and understood that for the most part it came out of a desire to share and assist. But in some cases it was so foreboding and downright scary that I just wanted to tell them to shut up mid-sentence. I swore I would never do this to my non-parental or soon-to-be parental friends. It's scary enough facing the end of your life as you know it without people throwing it in your face!

One of the things that we decided to do was take K with us to Scotland. We had planned a trip to Scotland in September 2008 when I was pregnant but because of Zoom going under and other sad events, we decided to cancel the trip. Distraught, although overdramatic, is a pretty good way to describe how we felt about cancelling this trip.

We had been told that travelling with a child would be very difficult and we wouldn't enjoy the trip as much. It was even suggested that we just leave K at home and go on our own. While I agree, it would have been very different had we gone just the two of us, we had such a good time with K. He made sleeping on the plane difficult impossible and he also insisted on sleeping with us and therefore stayed up to 10 PM with us every night. But we were able to see and do so much more than we expected.

I'm very glad we didn't listen to the naysayers. I know that a lot of it had to do with the fact that K is such an easy-going baby, but I also think that our attitude toward travel played a huge part in it as well. We enjoy it and we want to do it. So my advice to you, whoever you are, is to ignore all the advice that you get and do what you feel is best for you!