Round the World in 80 Days

My family has just returned home from an 80 day round-the-world adventure. The lodestones of our journey were to visit my elderly uncle and spend quality time with him, to visit The Offspring’s Great-Grandmother (also elderly, but that should go without saying) so that they can meet, and then to visit a friend who is 7 weeks postpartum and do a little postpartum doula work for her.

When we left, The Offspring was 13 months old. We visited (in order):

  • Miami, Florida, USA
  • The Greater London Area (Dorking), Surrey, England, UK
  • Madrid, Spain
  • Athens, Greece
  • Bangkok, Thailand
  • Hoi An, Vietnam
  • Taipei, Taiwan
  • Osaka, Japan
  • Nara, Japan
  • Kyoto, Japan
  • Tokyo, Japan
  • The Greater Los Angeles Area (Temple City), California, USA
  • San Angelo, Texas, USA

Home is in North Carolina. Chapel Hill to be exact.

The best part about this trip is that our airfare for all of these short hops, when totaled together, was less than a round trip ticket to Taipei from RDU would have cost. We were lucky in that The Mister works a remote job and was willing to put up with extreme sleep deprivation in order to achieve the route, and I was in between nanny placements so had no work obligations in that domain.

By the end of the trip, The Offspring was a master flyer. He did have some meltdowns on some flights, but the only one where he was truly inconsolable was the flight in to Vietnam – the temperature on the airplane was brutally hot, though that was in keeping with the temperature in Vietnam which is also brutally hot.

And now for the good stuff, the stuff you have been waiting for —

The Packing List

Disclaimer: This is what worked or didn’t work for us. Feel free to use this as a guideline for your thinking. Tools for one aren’t always tools for all, which is why I offer a personalized registry review to ensure the tools you want work for your family’s dynamic.

For The Offspring

The outfits were a perfect amount in a perfect size range. When it came to short sleeve outfits, I made sure that one half of them were rompers, and then the other half had separate shorts. That way I could mix and match between sleeve and leg lengths, but also reduced space thanks to the rompers which pack in a lesser volume.

We knew the bear suit would be big on The Offspring at first, but were willing to endure a slightly too big bear suit in exchange for luggage space. The Offspring grew into their bear suit.

When it came to swimming, we ended up having The Offspring swim in a swim-diaper only. The only swimming we did was in Vietnam and due to the brutality of the heat, we swam in the evening after the sun had set so didn’t need the sun protective effects of a full-body, full-coverage swim suit. After I went through all the trouble to watch a YouTube Video on How to Turn a Disposable Diaper into a Swim Diaper, we just ended up using one of the diaper covers without any absorbency as a swim diaper – this is all reusable swim diapers are, by the way.

We brought flats diapers in anticipation of using them as towels, but also with the covers they could double as diapers in the event we found ourselves under-equipped with disposable diapers. We decided to go with disposable diapers on this trip because we didn’t want to add the logistics of washing reusable diapers to our mental loads. We planned to purchase as we went, and, leaving with a package of disposables from the USA, we ended up purchasing additional diapers in Greece, Vietnam, and Taiwan. We purchased wipes in England and they lasted us, but I suspect part of that is The Mister’s great love of washing (with soap and water) The Offspring’s undercarriage when there is poop involved. We did not experience shortfalls in diapers nor wipes that required us to dip into our emergency reusables.

The rain suit and the bear suit came in clutch in England. It was cold and rainy and we spent many gusty, rainy minutes waiting on train platforms in order to go from The Great Uncle to our lodgings and back and forth. The rain suit layered beautifully over the bear suit.

Due to luggage restrictions on some of our airlines – I’m looking at you Norse Atlantic and Air Asia – where we weren’t even allowed to bring a diaper bag on board for our lap child, The Offspring, we packed their clothes into the outer cover of a neck pillow, and I wore the now-clothes-stuffed neck pillow. I would have wanted a neck pillow on our journey, anyway, so this worked out for double duty. We were able to fit almost the entire clothing list into a cover that I liberated from a neck pillow I got for $3 at the local thrift store. Some airlines are wise to the trick of stuffing a neck pillow cover, so are on the lookout for products officially sold for this “travel hack” and will add an extra bag charge when they see it. Because we used a cover of a really neck pillow neck pillow, we believe this is what allowed the airlines to let us pass.

When The Offspring grew out of the Current Size clothing, we donated it to children/families in need where we were. In Europe, this was easy as there is a culture of saving money through second hand clothing. In Asia, this proved more challenging as we ran into the superstition that children would be maligned if they wore second-hand clothes and so needed to wear only brand new clothing. Luckily there were temples which accepted outgrown clothing as offerings and would cleanse any ill fortune from them before redistributing them to children in orphanages in need. In Taipei, there were clothing donation bins.

We brought the Peak Designs Packable Tote to serve as our diaper bag. We did this because it is quite spacious, zips shut, packs down into its own pocket quite compactly, is tough as nails, and is most importantly light. Asian airlines weigh your baggage and for every ounce not spent on a diaper bag, it can be spent on snacks to keep The Offspring from showing off their vocal range while on the flight.

The Luddite Grasper Toy failed to capture The Offspring’s attention, and when we made friends with a less fortunate family in Thailand whose children played with ours, we noticed that their little boy gravitated to the toy and enjoyed it. We were happy to offer it as a gift of thanks and friendship. The Offspring never noticed its absence

I could spend all day singing the praises of the travel car seat piggyback strap. If you are bringing wheeled luggage with you, this is worth its weight in gold. Even though the travel car seat bag had backpack and hand-hauling straps and grips and the car seat wasn’t that heavy on its own, it was still quite the upgrade to be able to just roll the car seat behind us without a second thought.

We chose to take toddler wipes instead of diaper wipes because the toddler wipes would disintegrate more easily and we thought it would be kinder on the waste handling of some of the lesser developed places we were going to. Instead, they proved utterly frustrating to use as they’d turn in to fluffy shreds in your hand while wiping and so we replaced them with proper diaper wipes in England. Do not recommend toddler wipes unless you have a toddler who intends to drop them in the toilet and then flush before you can intercede.

The obsoleteness of the iPad was perfect in that it could only play the videos and music that we loaded on. The Offspring goes to bed listening to a particular song, and when they get upset during the day, part of their calm-down routine is to listen to a particular artist (Jackie Evanco). So we loaded the routine music on to the iPad and even included music videos to make it extra special. I tossed on some offline Ms. Rachel, Bluey, Pingu, and Hey Bear videos on the off chance they would prove useful. They did not. The Offspring spent most of the time with the iPad hitting the home button and tapping on the calendar app and back and forth and back and forth, but it bought us a pleasant plane ride. The Gamer Educator is an excellent source on how to use screens effectively as a tool and why the APA recommendation of no screens under age two is over-caution.

We did not think to bring a small philips screw driver to be able to open the battery door of one of our music toys and so when it ran out of batteries we were left with dead weight until we were able to convince someone nice to let us use theirs. To that end, we learned that hotels have screw drivers and will let guests use them – in our case at the front desk – with a plausible enough reason. That said, bringing a travel screwdriver is so easy that in the future I’d just take one with me.

The food stuff is obvious, I hope. The more snacks, the more pleasant the travels. Nuf said.

  • 1x blanket robe
  • a lot of black electrical tape wound around a popsicle stick
  • a lot of painter’s tape wound around a popsicle stick
  • 1x superglue
  • 1x baby nail clippers & nail scissors set
  • 1x toddler toothbrush
  • 1x travel tube of kid’s toothpaste with toothpick hole poked in foil covering the toothpaste opening
  • 1x Children’s Tylenol w dosing syringe – acquired in England
  • 1x first aid kit with additional …
    • DiaResQ; substituted the dosing cup for a small measuring cup
    • sewing kit with sharp needle
    • antibiotic ointments
    • anti-diarrhea medications for adults
    • 2x cold symptom relief caplets for adults
    • 4x Ibuprofen caplets for adults
    • 2x Benadryl caplets for adults
    • 1x Children’s Benadryl
    • 1/3 of a styptic pencil
    • 2 mL dropper bottle of rubbing alcohol
    • 1 mL vial of Tea Tree Oil
    • 5 mL flat container of itch-cream
    • 5x melatonin gummies for Mom
    • wallet comb & mirror – purchased at Taiwanese Daiso, but here’s a link to similar
    • electrolyte powder, either LMNT or caffeine LiquidIV
  • soft structured carrier
  • 1x microfiber cloth
  • 1x rechargeable electric fan
  • 1x large silk blanket scarf – acquired in Vietnam
  • 1x soft chair-harness – rarely used but when we needed it, we needed it
  • 1x compact picnic blanket
  • 1x container soap leaves – bought in Japan at CanDo
  • 1x razor comb – bought in Japan at CanDo, discarded due to airline regulations on sharps
  • flat-pack stool

The Blanket Robe is something I’ve been wearing when I cuddle The Offspring to sleep and have done since birth. I wanted to give The Offspring an anchor in an increasingly changeable world, and I found it to work quite successfully. It is as if sleep dust were sprinkled on The Offspring’s eyes as soon as they found themselves in bed with The Robe. If you don’t already have an association made for your child/ren, now’s the time!

The electrical tape served two purposes. Firstly to cover any annoying lights in the rooms in which we were staying because there were often a lot of them. And the second was babyproofing in that we could slap those over top of electrical outlets that The Offspring found absolutely fascinating. We used the baby nail scissors to cut the electrical tape.

The Painter’s Tape served to cover batteries inside of remotes so that even should The Offspring manage to open the battery door, they could not remove and orally explore the batteries inside. We also used it to create a few temporary labels.

The Superglue ended up being the MVP of the trip. From un-destroying breakable items that The Offspring decided to gravity test with prejudice, to putting back together their cracked thumb-toe nail when they had a barefoot walking accident, I would not travel without superglue ever again. It is one of those tools where when you have it, you cannot imagine life without it.

I had meant to pack a 2 mL Children’s Tylenol before leaving home and even bought a brand new one for the trip. Of course I forgot it. I though about going around the world without but then when in England, had a very vivid nightmare of The Offspring spiking a huge fever, the kind where the course of treatment is to administer a fever reducer at home and then rush to the emergency department. I decided that it was prudent to buy a bottle, even though the ones available to me were glass (vs the US’s plastic) and so cost weight and space penalties. We ended up using it plenty, for teething pain – those first year molars, tho – as well as injury pain – see the remarks about cracked toe nail, above. The Offspring also managed to pick up a splinter in the most tender part of their foot, and so Tylenol was administered to help compensate for the pain of splinter removal. The sharp needle from the first aid kit’s sewing kit also came into play for splinter removal.

I think I should also make a note here about the melatonin in the first aid kit. I’m not someone who suffers from jet lag, however I didn’t know how well The Offspring would do. Since I know that caffeine and melatonin transmit through breastmilk, and since The Offspring was still breastfeeding – we were going to areas with non-potable water so any thoughts of weaning were delayed until after our return as per the WHO – I thought that passing along caffeine in the morning and extra melatonin at night would help The Offspring adjust to local time more gently. And it worked. Do recommend. (As a basis of comparison, it took The Offspring a week to adjust to California Time when visiting The Grandmother, so having The Offspring adjust in two days indicated methodological efficacy.)

We elected to use a carrier rather than a stroller, knowing that we were going to be encountering situations which weren’t ideal for strollers. We hoped we could always acquire a stroller if necessary – rental, whatever – and that proved true. Here is some stroller wisdom which we found to hold true no matter where in the world one goes: Malls and zoos will have strollers available. Sometimes you have to pay. Sometimes you have to leave an ID as a guarantee. Sometimes they don’t care. But if you go to a Mall or a Zoo and don’t want to have to carry a child on a trip, ask at the information desk for strollers and you will receive a positive response. Some museums – Prado in Madrid, for example – also had strollers on offer. And there was often a parent looking to earn a little pocket money who would rent you one of their spare strollers, ask your host or hotel front desk to get connected for a rental. (Also, in non-western areas, there was usually a parent looking to take in laundry to earn a little pocket money; you want this so that you don’t have to fuss with buying, storing, discarding, and figuring out ideal amounts per load of detergent. Again, the hotel front desk can make the connection. In western areas, the hotel has guest coin laundry and detergent becomes your hassle.)

The electric fan was a godsend in hot/humid areas. You want to get one that will still blow air even while charging. Keep that child/those children cool. In Tokyo, I even rigged it up to help blow the hot air from the mini-split heater on to us on the bed because otherwise the hot air went where we weren’t and we were very, very chilly all night. It required some careful positioning and counter-weigh on the handle, but we got it done and spent many a warm and cozy night we wouldn’t otherwise have enjoyed.

The Silk Scarf was used as a nursing cover in Japan. Everywhere else it was okay and even expected to just pop out a breast, uncovered, and latch a kid. Park? Great! Restaurant? Everyone else is eating, so why not! You get the point. Japan is much more private about certain matters and it would be culturally insensitive not to follow local custom. Local custom being to use a cover if nursing in public which is seen as a last resort for the preferred nursing is to find a nursing room – which was never anywhere we happened to be, btw – and nurse in one of the curtained booths there. I bought the scarf because it was a screaming good deal and because it was almost identical to the capsule-wardrobe anchor scarf I’d been admiring and holding a tab open for. That I was able to use it later for a nursing cover was just icing on the cake.

By the time we got to Japan, The Offspring’s hair was getting long and was starting to bother them. I know that some parents choose to let their baby’s hair grow out long and delay a first hair cut. I wish The Offspring would cooperate with that plan. When their hair gets long enough to tickle ears or napes of necks, The Offspring makes a point of needing extra comforting for the experience. I have found razor combs to be a great way to remove those offending hairs, gently, especially with a squirmy toddler. Japanese razors in their razor combs are without peer, absolutely perfect. If I could do it over again, I’d mail that comb home to me, regardless of cost, rather than throw it away. I mourn.

The Offspring is bathed as part of The Mister’s shower routine. The Mister holds The Offspring on his lap while he sits in a shower chair and then passes off The Offspring to me once cleaned. Because we couldn’t take a shower chair with us, we took the next best thing in terms of the flat-pack stool. The Offspring further enjoyed it as a great toy, pushing it around as if it were a car, and we never regretted bringing it for a moment. It also helped protect souvenirs which needed to be kept flat because we sandwiched the souvenirs into the stool for travel.

For the Family

For Mom

The Nanny Knowledge Team

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