Susan Hoch

A few months ago, a friend of mine returned from a week-long break in Sanya with her husband and 6 month-old son.  I asked how it was, she sighed, related the details of the trip (no time alone, little one didn’t sleep well, lack of space in the hotel room, no clothes-washing facilities, no baby pool, restrictive), and after 20 minutes said, we should have just stayed at home.

When our daughter was 3 months old, we went to New Zealand for 10 days, when she was 5 months old, we went to Sanya for a week, at 7 months, off to Europe for a month, at 10 months to Suzhou and so on.  Like many ex-pats in Beijing, we do plenty of traveling with our little bundle of joy.  Therefore, I could definitely relate to my dear friend.  The whole process of traveling with a small child, start to finish, can be exhausting and disappointing.  A holiday, planned and paid for, and looked forward to, somehow just ends up not meeting expectations. 

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