Thursday, March 04, 2010

Parenting 101: Surviving a Long Bus Ride

Over the weekend, I joined Nic & his colleagues for their annual company retreat, and the destination was Malacca!

I was really quite excited, cos Wen & JerB were telling me about, well, the FOOD of that place! It wasn’t a very long trip, and therefore not that many meals to justify stuffing our faces, but still, it was a pretty fulfilling trip. Watch out for more “instalments” to my Malacca trip!

Here, in preparation for that food and fun, we first had to consider the biggest obstacle. The coach ride up to Malacca. The four hour bus trip. Each way.

Phew!

Just the thought was enough to send that shudder down our spines.

Thankfully, it went pretty smoothly. Of course, there were some whine-y moments and some heartstopping ones when we thought he would poop (No toilets! How could we change him?) Think only a handful of Nic’s colleagues are married and even the married ones didn’t have kids, so I believe it was an eye-opener for them all (for better or for worse… Hahaha!)

Well, through the trip, I learnt one thing really made the difference: Preparation. Ensuring you have enough things to occupy the toddler for the entire trip. And make sure you space the distractions out, so give each its' maximum spotlight!

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First line of defence: Daddy’s very nice (and not cheap) watch.

After 15 minutes, that novelty soon ran out. So it was out with #2: The book.

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This was amusing for all of the 3 minutes. My son’s not a Nemo fan, apparently.

But we still had other tricks up our sleeves.

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FOOD! Ah… this is all-important! And this is one of his favourite snacks – Calbee Prawn Crackers.

But the trophy for Holding-Longest-Attention-Span definitely goes to…

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The Portable DVD Player!

Jay was entertained by Bear in the Big Blue House, Hi-5, and even a trailer DVD of BabyTV! A Must-Have for any trip!

2 comments:

Melissa aka Equidae said...

the longest bus ride i have to do is 30-45 mins here in malta and i still havent got the nerve to try it!

Unknown said...

Ok, so the most impt thing to bring for the kid is the DVD and the player!