Generally when I travel, I either have both girls or no girls (though it is very rare for me to travel solo!).
Out of curiosity on Thursday, I looked up fares to Austin for this weekend and was floored by the cheap tickets! Camille had an event at home that she had been wanting to go to for a while, and she decided to stay behind. I booked tickets for Chloe and me to go to Austin for my mom’s birthday weekend.
Traveling alone with Chloe … what would it be like? I rarely get to spend time with her alone, just running local errands on occasion. Since she’s eight and has been traveling since she was a newborn, I was fairly confident that she’d be a great partner. She’s independent and responsible enough to handle security with no assistance. I worried a little bit about how she’d be if I ended up with a pat-down (thankfully, that didn’t happen). She can manager her rolling bag on her own (I do my best to avoid checking luggage). She can get up and go to the water fountain and trash on her own while I stay in our seats in the boarding area. She can read and play DS to entertain herself.
It was a strange experience to not have Camille along, but with only two people instead of three, personal needs and compromises were certainly easier to manage!
While I love traveling with both the kids, I look forward to taking more one-on-one trips with each of the girls.
I bet she also enjoyed the exclusive travel time as well. I hope to do that as my kids are older as well.
I’m sure it was a wonderful trip. I should do things like that: one on one time with one of the girls and not both all the time.
For now, I’m the one who will left behind as the girls are preparing for their first trip without mom or dad…
While I never traveled out of town with just one, it’s a joy to spend one-on-one time with a single child at a time. I love those moments, how ever infrequent they are.
I have very fond memories of a solo trip I took to NYC with my father when I was about 10 years old. As one of five kids, solo time with a parent was rare indeed, and to spend an entire weekend in NYC with my dad was a huge event.