From Globetrotting back to Urban Mommy

Yes, you guessed right – and on your first try! It’s Elisa “Urban” Keay here, and I’m back in my blogging seat.

I honestly love blogging. I took a little hiatus after two years because… life. Too much going on. Too many things at play. Too much fun to be had. Too many places to see. Too many things to do…

We went on an incredible adventure as a family. We took our boys and headed to Europe for 5 months. It was less of a family with a plan and more of a spontaneous opportunity where the stars aligned and our lives needed a shift. The adventure was a good deviation from the hum and pace of real life.

It was, in fact, quite life changing.

While we were away I just couldn’t wrap my mind around mommyblogging. Isn’t that weird? We were still having the normal family dynamic, still the same parenting craziness, but the adventure pulled our focus. There is a blog – ShaneandSullivan.com – that materialized. The boys blogged about their travels (with my help) but even that fell to the wayside as the adventure grew.

If you ever want to know about family travel, just ask. I’m sure I could have been better prepared had I spent six months pouring over travel blogs, parenting travel blogs, travel mags, books, maps… anything! But I didn’t.

Having been to Europe a few times, I felt that the seat of my pants was all we really needed. (Well, that and a car.) And off we went.

I learned 5 mommyblogging-related things while traveling around Europe that I’d love to share with anyone thinking of taking on this kind of adventure:

1. Your kids will always pick up your vibe
   Seriously – if you’re nervous, they’re nervous. If you’re excited, they’re excited. If you play it cool and make your expectations too high, nothing will ever be enough. You need to travel in a way that makes you feel thrilled and engaged so that they will be, too. Is it food, shopping, nature, history or seeing museums and monuments? Indulge. And make sure you share your insights and your enthusiasm with the kids. Otherwise they just feel like they’re being dragged around.
   

   Down Time. Geek Castle in Seurre, France. The castle is completely decked out in video and arcade games. The Star Wars Room was the thing my children dream of! They stayed up all night and played all day. That was some serious down time. They still miss the resident cat, Mikey. (Our favourite Airbnb)

2. Down time.
   You may want to do 12 cities in 10 days, but your littles won’t be able to keep up. We found the perfect cadence for our kids was 2 days on, one day off. And travel days didn’t count as a day off. So 5 months meant we could cover a lot of ground (11 countries and 33 stops), but there was a lot of time where we would be at “home” (our airbnb or homestay) and watching movies or playing games. We’d grocery shop and cook at home. We could do a max of 6-8 hours out of the house on our adventure days, but morning to night was way too much for them to handle.
   Kids get overwhelmed. The food, culture, language, architecture – it’s all so unfamiliar. It’s over-stimulating. It’s exciting. It’s got to be kept to a kid-friendly pace.
3. Their palate
   The struggle is real. Kids will eat what they will eat, and they’ll refuse new foods for no good reason. This isn’t helpful when you’re traveling and want to try exotic foods. We had to make deals like: If you don’t like raclette then we’ll go straight to McD’s for a burger. It wasn’t hard to get them to eat pasta in Italy or pork hock in Poland, but tapas in Spain – that was no easy feat. They were real troupers and found things they loved everywhere we went, but there was a whole other level of adventure created by dining out. The luxury of staying at airbnbs is that we had a home kitchen most of the time and cooked their favourites – from hearty beef stew to simple grilled cheese to roasted chicken. But we also found meatballs at IKEA and hotdogs at HEMA gave them a little taste of home that they needed – and though it sounds stupid to hit IKEA for lunch, it made them so happy to stop there on long drives between cities, and made them feel at home.
   

   A winter swim in a 40 degree sulphur spring in Bain de St. Thomas

4. Kid tourism is a big deal
   We didn’t realize it at the outset, but kid tourism is a big deal. There are major parks, museums and destinations all over the world and in every big city that are designed specifically for kids. In fact, I honestly think that the mentality in Europe – the inclusiveness of children’s interests and family needs – is better served than in North America. So many places were interactive and had a ‘family first’ mentality. The creation of places that removed the need for lines, that added in as much hands-on activity as possible and that actually created these activities that families could enjoy on a budget blew our minds. Places like NEMO in Amsterdam, Irlander Park near Bonn, and our absolute favourite – Mirakulum just outside of Prague, were real highlights of our travel as far as fun family play time.
   

   A gondola ride we’ll never forget in Venice

5. The journey is the destination
   This is a family motto, I’ve lived it going on 30 years. You start out thinking the trip is about seeing Europe, but end up realizing the trip is about spending time together. The adventure of seeing and experiencing castles and lakes and hot springs and cities and food and culture and art – it’s all wonderful! – but it’s the icing on that four-layer family cake.

We’re back in the city that we call home. We miss the nomadic way of life we’d become so good at, but it’s nice seeing friends and family – and the kids are enjoying sharing the stories with friends. While we did Facetime, Instagram, Facebook and phone friends and family back home, there’s no replacement for that intimate one-on-one contact. That’s the one thing we couldn’t give the kids while we traveled.

And now that we’ve settled back in and I’m no longer “Globetrotting Mommy”, I’m happy to be “Urban” again and connect with you as we continue the highs, lows and laughs of parenting together. Hope you’re happy to have me back.

PS – We’re already planning our next adventure.