Parent Dictionary: Before and After Kids Entries 4-7

Parent Dictionary: Before and After Kids Entries 4-7

   I missed posting any entries on Father's Day. I probably should have, but with 5 kids spoiling me all day, I didn't have any time. By spoiling, I mean one of my kids said "When is Father's Day over? My birthday is coming up and I want it to be my birthday!" A few forgot and all of them really just wanted to go swimming to celebrate me even though I don't like to swim all that much. But, they did get me some presents and did give me cards and it was a pretty perfect Father's Day because I was with my family the whole day and got a chance to see my own Dad for a bit as well. All in all, a pretty good day. And as Sully says..."now, your day is over, it is my birthday now!!"

   And with the week beginning and more camps starting up, I figured I would update my "traveling with kids" dictionary. Here you go, here's what I have learned....

Carseats

Before: Huh. Those things are pretty cool. They look safe. Just buckle across and the baby is perfectly safe. Nice!

After: You know that junk drawer in your house that seems to catch a little bit of everything? Also, have you ever looked under one of your couch cushions when you were in college? Combine what's in the junk drawer and what you find under a couch cushion and mix in 36 months of McDonald's dropped food and you have your current car seat. Also, they are not as simple as they look. Installing a carseat makes building a bed from IKEA look easy.

Shopping Run

Before: Jump in, drive to store, jump out, buy what you need, drive back. Boom!

After:  Get all kids loaded because buying milk and bread is obviously the best road trip they can imagine right now. Add 60 minutes to your trip for loading, unloading, bathroom breaks, tantrums, cart rides, and taking the short class on how to drive the 2-seat NASCAR shopping cart that holds 5 items and can't take corners out of aisles 1-8 very well.

Winter Coats

Before: Practical. Warm. Great to have around between October-March in the upper Midwest.

After: Why is it so difficult to put these on! Where are your arms! How can you be too hot? How can you not be warm enough? Hon....why did we just spend 20 minutes putting this coat on if we were just going to take it off to put him in his carseat? How many mittens can be stuffed into one sleeve?

Bottom line: Use only if temps get below 10 degrees and only if your child is going to be outside sledding all day (funny...that never happens. They always come in 10 minutes after you spent your morning bundling them up.)

Tying Your Shoes

Before: I can't wait until our children reach the age where we can bond over learning to tie their shoes. They are going to feel so grown up! It will be quite a milestone!

After: Velcro shoes. Crocs. Slip on shoes. Don't even mess with shoes that tie. They can look that up on Youtube when they are older. Adds 2 years to your life just avoiding this process.