Work related travel is a regular occurrence in our household, and one
night we were going over our calendars and realized we both had to be
in Kansas City around the same time. Excellent! We could bring the
kids with us and split who was working and who had the kids-
genius!...so we thought.
Our kiddos are currently 4, 3
and 9 months old and we haven't taken a road trip with them since
July...not too long ago, it is only November, right?!?!? We neglected
to realize that our son has become potty trained since our last road
trip...this realization did not come to us until we were in way too deep
to back out...for newer parents, just keep reading and you will never
fail to think of this when you are at this stage!
Having
three kids, we think we have this parenting thing down, but every time
we get a little too confident there is a natural consequence that knocks
us right back into our place of not knowing anything at all. This trip
was one of those natural consequences...
We worked it
out so my husband had afternoon meetings on a Friday and I had meetings
on Monday and Tuesday. Then lucky for us, my husband got scheduled into
a two day conference in Springfield, MO which we could hit on the way
back on Wednesday and Thursday. Great plan, right???
Um,
no! We started the drive Friday morning around 9 and had to stop at
least 20 times for potty breaks! My poor husband had a 1pm meeting and
we were against the clock. Every time we stopped we announced to the
car that it was a potty break and everyone had to try...this was not as
effective as hoped. Without doubt five to ten minutes down the road
after everyone "tried" we would hear a desperate plea from the back that
they had to "GOOOO!"
Thankfully, my husband is a
genius/liar and his meeting actually started at 1:30, because we pulled
up to our destination at exactly 1:29.
During my
finest parenting moment during this trip, I agreed that my husband could
go meet a co-worker on Monday morning before my meetings that
afternoon. He took the car and dropped us off at Panera while he went
to stop into the office. I was smart and arranged for friends to come
see the kiddos at Panera and take up some of this time. I picked a
Panera by the hotel that had a courtyard behind it for the kids to run
around and Panera always has great kid food. Every Panera (St. Louis
Bread Co.) I have been to in St. Louis has been incredibly family
friendly, but for some reason this one was not so accommodating. I
realized within 10 minutes of getting there that my youngest had a
stinky diaper...went to the bathroom and not only did the restaurant not
have a changing table, my wipes were in the van my husband took to his
meeting...sad news! Thinking quickly I wet some paper towels and went
to the back of the restaurant to a booth with my travel changing pad and
took care of business.
Luckily it was soon after
that my first friend arrived, and we took the kiddos to the courtyard to
run around. All was great, we were catching up and then my 3 year old
announced he had an accident...it was not just any accident, but the
smelly kind, which he has NEVER done, but why not on a family road
trip. I was already well aware of the bathroom situation, so I was able
to gather the supplies available and take care of the situation rather
quickly. You would think this is where it ends, but no, I went back to
the courtyard to find my other friend had arrived and she said the baby
just didn't smell right. Of course she didn't...back to the bathroom I
went. Now it was full on lunch time and the restaurant was filled, so I
ended up cleaning the baby in the sink holding her up by one leg and
really questioning what would happen in DFS walked in the door.
Hanging
out with the kids together was a wonderful experience, but my poor
husband also had a unique experience alone with the kiddos. We
pre-bought tickets to Lego Land for him and the three kiddos for the
afternoon after my Panera adventure. Of COURSE he also had a bathroom
experience. He brought the three kids into the Lego Land bathroom
(which did have a changing table!, but he also left the wipes in the
van) and he started dealing with our youngest first...he turned around
to find our two oldest "sharing" the potty and our son peeing behind our
daughter in the same toilet. This lead to a LOT of laughter and also a
LOT of clean up and outfit changes.
Moral of the story...don't get too confident and always have wipes!
