Travelling a long way in a short time: Dos and Don'ts

We recently went overseas for 17 days in the interest of keeping the family together as much as possible while working in different countries.  We went from Melbourne to LA for 4 days then on to London for 9 then Singapore for 2 then back home to Melbourne. Here are a few Dos and Don'ts that I leant and wish to share.

1. DON'T. No, really, don't do this.
2. Sure, DO this if you want to only get one night of actual, 6-8hr sleep in nearly 3 weeks.
3. DO this if you want to spend about 6 nights trying to entertain a 2 yr old for between 3 and 6 hours in the time of the night that, on a good night, you used to be getting last drinks before buying a dodgy kebab and dancing home on the night bus to watch video hits until dawn.
4. DO this if you want to watch High-5 and The Wiggles so much your brain starts to actually implode and you want to hit your face repeatedly with the steering wheel of the Big Red Car.
5. DON'T do this if you want a romantic getaway.
6. DON'T do this in the European winter. It gets dark very early so try telling a toddler who you have rudely awakened at 3pm, that it is in fact day time and they must stay awake in the living room being entertained by a cheap karaoke machine and Play Doh until dinner time.
7. DO get an iPad (or a tablet of some description) and fill it with tv shows that you can handle in bulk (here are some suggestions).
8. DON'T get tricked into downloading High 5, The Wiggles or Dora. NEVER DORA.
9. DON'T accidentally go out in LA until dawn one night trying to keep up with childless actors ten years younger than you. This will in no way help the situation at hand.
10. DO stop in Singapore and go to the Zoo. The water park is worth the ticket price alone (tip - take your bathers and your own food.)
11. DO buy a cheap karaoke machine and Play Doh.

So we are back and thankfully, because of the Singapore stopover, we didn't get much jetlag at all on our return. I highly recommend a stopover once your baby gets to about 2... And fly over night whenever possible as they can sleep as much as you want them to (I wake bubs up early if arriving late in the day so you can go to bed at a reasonable hour at the destination).


Oh, and we bought this recently:

The Gro Clock is a clock that you can set with a wake up time. You can set it for daytime and nighttime sleeps and when you press a button the stars come out (apparently a really fun thing to do for a 2 yr old which is a bonus).Then the stars slowly disappear during the night until the sun comes up at your set time. It is great to help a baby understand what time of the day it is when it changes due to jet lag. It makes no difference in those heavy nights of wide-awake toddler (no clock on earth can convince them that it isn't time to get up and play). But most of the time my bubba will stay in her room until the sun comes out (she looks at her books or talks to her teddies) and then she runs down the hall excitedly to tell us the SUN HAS COME OUT!! Our clock also has the added extra of running a bit slow, so after a week we start to get about 15mins extra sleep. Hooray! In fact maybe that is what they planned all along.. Genius.

ps. I realise that my life is ridiculously lucky and the fact that we are able to travel like this and all be together is a privilege and I was, and will always be happy to do it. But, I will have a bit of a bitch afterwards. That's ok isn't it?