What Travelling Transatlantic with two Children Under 5 can Teach you About Life

You think you know stress?

Until you’ve landed in Philadelphia 40 minutes before your connection to Orlando, with two young children desperate to see Minnie Mouse, having been awake for 18 hours since 5am, knowing you still have to make it through immigration and security, aware of the fact there isn’t another flight until tomorrow morning – you haven’t experienced the true anguish of desperation.

But nothing prepares you for having to consciously consider every action you make for an entire day on no sleep.

Travelling is stressful on your own

Travelling with children on your own is several orders of magnitude for difficult.

There is no better metaphor for life. Than learning to deal with unexpected issues and reacting accordingly.

You may have colleagues incapable of listening or competing the simplest of tasks.

Try walking through duty free with a toddler, and a 4 year old who thinks she’s the next Cara Delevingne which entitles her to try every scent that accosts her on her travels to the gate.

And people que to get onto the planes

Like the flights going to leave without you? You’re at the gate, they are literally going to call you up row by row.

the lesson this teaches is that people will always do things that sabotage their own interests. It’s a uniquely human characteristic that we are incapable of relenting our own impatience. Irrespective of the obviousness of our indiscretions as soon as one person acts we must as well. We don’t want to miss out. Queing in airports is group think. Just because one person does something and other copy – it doesn’t mean it is right.

The plane bring its own pearls

Distractions are the name of this game

Every gap between seats is a portal to another dimension, while every back seat must bear an uncanny resemblance to a football as every child seems incapable of resisting the temptation to kick them relentlessly.