Rule three discussed the modalities by which you and your spouse should decide on how you will travel; the fourth rule is a continuation of Rule #3 – Distribution of Labor. Establishing who will do what so you’re both not fumbling over each other makes things easier to prepare for travel.
Rule #4 for traveling with kids…Plan accordingly. It’s easy to this when it’s clear who is responsible for what, and for my wife, it was, A) selecting a travel bag that made things easy to access, and B) packing that bag in a way that she knew she was going to need and use during travel. The term Mis en Place comes to mind when I think back on this. My wife swore by the Scout Pocket Rocket bag because it made all the essentials she need to care for or son during travels easy to pack and easy to access. All I had to do was be the sherpa, and shuffle the bag around. By distributing labor (rule #3) and planning accordingly made things clear in terms of absolute essentials, what should be packed, and what can be acquired during our travels so the we didn’t run the risk of overpacking. With Walmarts and Targets in pretty much every town in this country, under-packing can easily be remedied. Traveling overseas or to places you’re not sure on accessibility of certain items, then slightly overpacking is not a bad idea.
My role in all this was to handle the logistics of travel. “Do you know where you’re going?”, has been a common question my wife asks me during our travels, and that’s part of it. Knowing where to go, what terminals and gate, what bags need to be checked and what bags I will schlepp so that my wife can just focus on carrying our little dude. For me, a good backpack is what I need so I can be hands free and carry other things that need schlepping. My favorite bag is the Patagonia Black Hole Backpack. The storage space is great and is easy to access the stowed contents, and for a 25L bag, it sure can stow a lot. All this may seem trivial, but my wife and I have found that it’s a way to relieve ourselves of additional stress during our travels. It just makes things easier to distribute labor and plan accordingly.