35 - Sunday, July 1, 1990 - North Shore News Let kids do their own packing CHILDREN CAN LEARN GEOGRAPHY, TOC I CERTAINLY ruffled a reader's feathers with a comment I made in a recent column. My beef was about a mother with a very sick child, potentially infecting everyone in the passport of- fice. I’m not sure how I worded it but | pointed to the fact that this mother was mature enough in age to know better. My reader pointed out that age has nothing to do with mothering skills and she is quite right. How- ever, I shudder a bit when | see girls who are little more than babies themselves toting infants. In my generation, unwanted pregnancies were very common — two of my best friends suffered shotgun weddings at 16 and believe me, they had no more idea of childcare than of neurosurgery. My cat would have done a bet- ter job. The young fathers were no bet- ter and in both cases they spent most nights out with the other boys. I pitched in my inadequate help and it’s a proper wonder ei- ther of those infants survived. The reader also asked at what age I had my first child — I was 25 but knew as little then as 1 did at 16. However, I tackled the job with enthusiasm in a stable marriage — not that Brian was any roaring They know the value of looking good. Have you any idea of the hassles in stores for long-haired guys with an earring and a tattoo? Or a girl in jeans, toting a packsack and trying to cash a cheque? And they learned how to pack! They carry one small suitcase, with wheels, and manage to look superb. Mind you, it helps when everything you own is size seven or smaller. ll also swear that my kids could find a laundromat with a coffee machine and soap dispensers in the middle of the Gobi Desert — not that you’d likely find any of my kids there. I think they’ve done enough of the exotic stuff — 1 hear a lot more about Hawaii and Disneyland than the Himalayas or Dakar. “‘The worst enemy of a parent travelling with kids is fatigue. I can remember two instances where my kids began to show a gradual personality chanege...’’ a a hell in the diaper department. By the time | got around to number three I was darned good at the job — a talent I gradually lost! Now, when someone hands me a newborn I start.to shake — it’s one of those things that makes me feel 16 again. The only difference is that then I was too young to know how dumb I really was. And what has all this to do with travel? Not'a lot, except I hauled my infants, toddlers and children all over the world — cars, planes, boats, trains and even horse carts. Again, it's a miracle that they all survived! Can you believe I even hauled an eight yeat old through a revo- lution in Argentina, across the Atlantic by ship and = across Europe by train? All in one go? We even dared the slums of Rio and the back hills of Brazil. 1 escorted another, at If, through Morocco. | must have been mad! When I think of the potential for disaster, I cringe, but ] think I'd do it all over again. I’ve managed to raise three of the most socially capable young women I know. They are also the most cautious and fully aware of the common sense aspect of safety in travel. . They aren’t baffled by language barriers, they can count in pounds and pesos and can find their way through a foreign airport as fast as I can. By seeing the world at an early age, none of my girls ever came to me with any harebrained schemes to hitchhike through Central Africa. They know how to travel cheaply without hauling their worldly goods around like a tur- ule. ee But I do have a list of ground tules for young parents who want to travel with kids: @ Never take an infant any- where except in case of emergen- cy. Anyone travelling with a two year old — for pleasure — isn’t apt to find much. ® The worst enemy of a parent travelling with kids is fatigue. ! can remember two instances where my kids began to show a gradual personality change, but I didn’t catch on in time. It wasn’t until ] had a scream- ing monster on my hands that I figured it out. Then, just try to get that kid into bed! I finally had to resort to a very low pat on the back. ft was me who ought to have been spanked. Where was my judgment? It took two experiences to teach me so I hope you'll learn from my mistakes. * All kids over the age of five should do their own packing. If that sounds harsh, think about it. For the same reason, } don’t pack for Brian, either. Do I need to shoulder the blame for a missing lie or half a bathing suit? Besides, planning the trip is often as much fun as going. You can teach a kid a lot of geography and jocal customs while discussing what he'll need to wear. *Our kids learned table man- ners about the same time they got out of high chairs. Why? Because neither of us wants to be embar- rassed by some yukky kid in a restaurant. They got even more in-depth training before their first cruise — by the time they were cight they could cope with an array of silverware and the etiquette of addressing a waiter or a busboy. If one of my kids ever announced, “IT won't eat that!’’ they knew they might end up as shark food. However, they learned very ear- ly that it was quite correct to leave travelwise Barbara McCreadie something uneaten as long as they said, “‘Mom, this isn’t what I ex- pected and [ can't finish it.”" We know better than to try force, having seen friends in that position. © Kids travel easier if they are introduced to a variety of dif- ferent foods from the beginning. if they live on peanut butter sandwiches at home they aren't apt to bite into curry or cous- cous, © Be careful about other travel- ling kids. Although kids need and like other kids it can sometimes spell disaster. My Suzy teamed up with another travelling eight year eld in Brazil and turned into an instant hooligan. This unsupervised little rich kid had enough screw-the-system schemes to wreck a hotel. Ever heard of elevator tag? At this point | was under the impression that they were playing quietly on the patio under the watchful eye of other Granny. This kid’s Granny had fled to the bar. The hotel was too polite to tell me that they’d screwed up 26 floors of elevators. ° Any visit to a foreign country is as good as a full semester at school, as long as the parent takes the responsibility of playing teacher. That doesn't mean two museums a day, either. Go for the best stuff and give it in small doses. For example, the British Museum is worth a daily visit for a year. Instead, single out a part that will catch the kid’s imagina- tion (the Egyptian section is greal!). Distribution Manager, Barb Emo and staff in their new office. NEWS Distribution gets new digs One of our kids was fascinated by the glassworks in Murano, all thrilled to pick and eat oranges in California. Stage plays. Old cas- Ues with a thousand stairs. The Leaning Tower. Bird cage eleva- tors. Reconstructed whore houses. Old saloons. Haggis and black pudding. Squid salad. I could relish a little of any of the above if | had a joyful eight year old to bring along. See the world with a kid. 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