Before we get into this and my words are taken out of context. I absolutely love traveling with my daughter. I even started Wandering Moms to encourage more moms to travel with their children. Traveling with my daughter brings us closer and helps us bond so I do love traveling with her. But also, I kinda hate traveling with my kid and I know other parents feel me. Here’s why:

1. It’s kinda painful buying that additional plane ticket

It happens every time. I’m searching for a good price on flights, I find one and I’m like “BOOM YES THIS WORKS” then I do the math and I’m like “oh wait, I gotta multiply this by two!!?!?” and suddenly that good deal looks more like we might be eating ramen for a few weeks, lol.

I’m sure I’m not the only mom who has looked at the cost of those multiple flights and thought “maybe this one should be a momcation“.

2. she moves slow as hell through security

Ya’ll, I’ve never seen anyone take so long going through the security line. You would think the girl has never been on a flight. I firmly believe she packs her carry on bag for the maximum time it will take to pull out her laptop. It’s like she’s trying to get into the Book of World Records for “Longest Time Spent In The Security Line”. Meanwhile, I’m dressing down while waiting in line and I basically fill my bins and pull my laptop out in one smooth motion. I’m so quick in the security line that a TSA agent has commented about how fast I divested, the dude was impressed.

Let me also add that more than a few times we’ve been stopped in security for her having things in her bag that aren’t allowed. Let me restate that…things that SHE FULL WELL KNOWS are not allowed. We’ve been stopped because she had a whole ass bottle of gatorade in her bag and I’ve been stopped b/c she put a pair of large scissors in my carry-on. I think she was trying to frame me and have me subjected to a body cavity search. Based on that, it’s pretty fair to say this is a good reason to hate traveling with my kid.

3. she always wants the window seat

I like a good window seat so I can gaze out the window at the clouds and thank God that this is my life and to prop my weary head on the plane wall for a good sleep. But when my kid is with me, she always wants the window seat. In fact, she doesn’t even ask for it, just hops her happy ass into the window seat as if I bought it for her.

Truth is, she does automatically get the window seat because I always want to be able to separate her from anyone else sitting in our row. That doesn’t mean I don’t get to pout about it.

4. she hates getting up early

I’m an early riser and most activities on the trip start pretty early in the day. My daughter likes to sleep and I don’t mean she likes to sleep I mean she likes to SCHLEEEP! She’ll sleep until 2pm if you let her. That’s challenging for me because I’m a very early riser, I don’t sleep past 7am no matter what time I go to bed.

I like to maximize the day in a location and honestly, this is less about activities and more about food. Eating three meals each day in a destination is a huge win for me! It allows me to eat as much of the local food as I possibly can.

Waking my daughter up can often be a full out production that can ruin both our day so we typically either agree to a waking time the night before OR I just do stuff on my own until she wakes up.

5. she whines

The thing about kids is, whining doesn’t stop just because you’re on vacation. Ask any mom in the Wandering Moms Facebook Group! But the parental tolerance for it is far lower on vacation. Because we should be having fun. Because you’re privileged enough to be traveling and enjoying the world WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE TO WHINE ABOUT?

Oh they find things:

• Walking for too long
• Not having “regular food”
• It’s too hot
• It’s too cold
• This tour is boring
• The tv at this hotel doesn’t have connections for my gaming system
• I don’t have wifi, I’m going to lose my streaks on snapchat!

When my daughter starts whining on trips I start feeling like I wish I had left her home, to be honest.

As mommas we get excited about taking our kids on trips. For some of us, it means giving them a life that we never had. We have a different level of appreciation for what it has taken to be able to give our children the world.

So when she whines, it feels like she’s being ungrateful and trivializing how much it’s taken to get her here. I hate that feeling.

6. i gotta pay for everything

She’s like my broke best friend for real. Every meal, every activity, every tour, every trinket, every souvenir, every cab ride, I gotta buy it myself. I knew this going in because I’m the momma but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to complain about it. It’s such a relief when I travel with my girls and if I pay for dinner I get a cashapp deposit for their portion of the meal. It feels amazing when my friends whip out their credit cards to split the check for their own horseback ride on the beach, ya know?

I look forward to the day when she grows up and can take ME on a trip and pay for everything – **stares off wistfully into the distance**

The truth is the reasons I love traveling with my daughter far outweigh the things I hate about traveling with her. She is one of my favorite travel homies and I look forward to many more years of exploring new places with her and introducing her to places I love as well.

Thanks for letting me vent guys! Sometimes a momma just needs a moment to keep it all the way real.