One Secret to a Working Mom Success: Make Family Events More Enjoyable With Friends

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Better Together: Why Inviting Another Family Makes Activities More Fun #FamilyFun Sometimes family activities can feel like another item on the to-do list. However, doing those activities with another family makes them more fun! Whether it’s a trip to an amusement park , a visit to the local pool , or trip to a pumpkin patch , including another family can multiply the fun in amazing ways. One of my favorite moms to collaborate with is my friend, Ayana Ledford who's pictured above with her daughter Sahar. We have done all of the things listed as seemingly random examples above and here is how including her and her daughter (and sometimes her son too) has made the events more fun. On the date above, Ayana almost left the venue because parking was a nightmare. That said, she hung in there and we would up having a great time!
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A Peek Into the Life of a Working Mom: 4th of July Weekend

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As a working mom, I live in a world where I tend to do too much, sleep too little and sometimes forget to attend to some details. That can be problematic when you are traveling with a toddler...

Here's something I wrote about a recent trip to Presque Isle.

Traveling with can be challenging for several reasons.


The first, it's a toddler, which means that it is a little person discovering the world and learning to potty. So, you spend a fair amount of time in unsavory restrooms and the other time saying, "Do you have to go potty?!" Sometimes it like you're a broken record.

The second reason is, toddlers have a really short attention span. So, they get bored fairly easily. That means, you're always trying to entertain them. Sometimes, you just don't feel like doing that!

Another reason it's challenging, although there are many, are the sleep rituals.

One secret to traveling with a toddler is to maintain her routine.

My daughter is a creature of habit. Every night she falls asleep with a shower/bath, a massage with her special sleepy time lotion, her special "ortho Nuby pacifier", her froggy toy and her bunny. Most nights she also has the sound of the Ocean. we live in Pittsburgh, Pa., but sound machines are a wonderful thing. She'd love to get rocked every night too, but knows that's a special treat. When we put her to sleep she stays asleep. I think that made us cocky...
On this trip to Erie, her parents forgot all of her sleep aids. There was no sleepy time lotion, no froggy, no bunny and no sound of the ocean. We were flying blind. We knew better, but the packing was done by two and owned by none so were stuck. I don't like assigning blame, but "he did it!"

The lack of the aids was even a bigger deal because we weren't staying in a suite. So, we were all in one room.  We improvised and move the wardrobe to give create a "faux suite".

Eventually, the toddler wound up going to sleep. However, before she did Andre and I exchanged heated whispers about whose fault it was that we had to go to sleep when she did, sit in the dark, and remain silent.

Mommy and toddler in hotel before we put her to bed.


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