Discovering Fatherhood
Reflections on everyday daddy stuff
To Jersey and Back
My cousin got married this past week in New Jersey so the family traveled to partake in the festivities. We have stayed with Claire in hotel rooms before but mostly when she was in her infant stage. Putting her down to sleep as an infant a few feet away from us wasn’t a big deal–she would pretty much sleep through anything and we could carry on. Now as a toddler it is a whole new ball game.
At home we have walls to filter the noise but in the hotel room there was no place with walls to go to, except for the bathroom. As most kids do, Claire needs her nap. A few months ago Claire missed her naptime due to family visiting and it was pretty bad. She wouldn’t go to sleep that night, but not only that it threw her off her schedule for two weeks.
FOR TWO WEEKS!!!
Needless to say Jess and I understand the sacredness of naptime. We are not messing with it. So, in a hotel in Jersey we put Claire down in her playpen and we proceeded to eat our lunch in the only place with separate walls. The bathroom. I know, it’s gross but I much rather eat there than wake my daughter from her nap. TWO WEEKS PEOPLE!
My wife and I had hard tacos and chips. When I went to order this meal I didn’t think of the amount of noise the said tacos and chips would make while eating. Amateurs. I know. But tacos sounded so good, especially when all you can eat in this part of Jersey is Italian. As much as we love Italian you can only have so many cannollis before you lose your cannollis.
Anyways, so I sat on the toilet and my wife sat on the tub. We whispered and ate our food as quietly as possible. It was romantic in a weird sort of way. “I love the way your eyes shine off the porcelain my love.” We finished our quasi-romantic meal and headed ever so quietly to the main living area where Claire slumbered. Jess grabbed her laptop to study and I began to write this blog post on my iPad.
I looked into seeing if hotels have rooms made for large families with separate sleeping quarters and some do, but they are ridiculously expensive. Our hotels website in NJ didn’t seem to have any.
My wife and I were fine with needing to accommodate for nap time, but what do you do when you have more than one child and you cannot afford the presidential sweet your hotel offers with that extra room? I would love to hear what other families do when they travel with multiple kids and have to stay in a hotel.
Discovering Fatherhood 