Post Quarantine Problems – Day Trips With Kids
Do you guys remember what it’s like to take the kids out for a day trip?
Apparently time in quarantine softened my husband and my parenting skills. We left the house for a hiking trip with a long list of things, forgotten. Hopefully this list can help you do better than we did and help us remember what to do differently next time.
1. Carry sweaters for both kids
I know it’s getting into summer time. But this is Canada and we really don’t know how long we’ll be out for or if there’ll suddenly be a cold wind. Our oldest was in shorts and a t-shirt. Her long limbs were guaranteed to get cold.
We ended up realizing after being 20 mins away from home that daddy was the only one with a sweater, so we stopped at Superstore for a couple… and for diapers and wipes. Which brings me to my next point,
2. Diapers and Wipes
Bella’s not potty trained yet AND she didn’t have her daily poop yet when we left.
What were we thinking? Luckily I realized we hadn’t brought a diaper bag while we were on our way to grab sweaters. That could have been a very messy situation. Speaking of messy situations…
3. The 5 year Old Using The Toilet
My husband and I literally sat there looking at each other like, “Did you see her go to the bathroom? Did you tell her to go to the bathroom?”
Which leads me to our next forgotten item..
4. Hand Sanitizer
In my defense, it’s been out of stock in most places for a while now. I have no clue if these items are in fact finally available.
But upon arriving at our hiking trail, we found decent looking bathrooms. These bathrooms had a sign asking that everyone sanitizes their hands before and after using the toilet… They failed to mention that we had to have brought our own hand sanitizer.
But hey, I’m from the Carribean. As a child I used to pee in the bush when we were on a day trip. I didn’t realize that it’s actually an acquired skill for little girls. Which then reminded me we really should have brought…
5. Change of Clothes
In my defense, I would usually keep a change of clothes in my bag no matter where we were going and for how long we planned to be gone for.
But after being home for so long due to quarantining, I realized some of their really cute outfits that were on the verge of being outgrown were missing. So I looked, and found them in the different bags we take out with us and put them in the kids’ dresser.
A simple extra pair of pants would have saved our five year old from spending the hike in wet pants.
Now that we’ve covered everything we got wrong, here’s a list of things we actually did right!
1. Natural Bug Repellent
I learned that lavender oil wards off bugs. So I mixed it with coconut oil and everyone got covered from head to toe in it. It’s the best bug repellent we’ve ever used. And we were literally walking through swarms of bugs that would just scatter. Yay!
2. Hats
Everyone had a hat. Yay for no heat stroke! Although, we were walking under a shade of tall trees. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
3. Water
Everyone had their own water bottle! Everyone kept hydrated and it helped everyone stay happy.
It’s tricky getting out of the house now that we’ve been stuck in the house for so long. But despite our time outside being messier than planned, it was well worth it!
