No matter how laid back and adventurous you are, traveling with young kids is a totally different experience.

Living just a few miles away from one of the coolest, most diverse cities in the world, and internally bragging to ourselves about “living where you vacation” we ventured out on what should’ve been a seamless outing with our boys. Before kids, we rarely if ever, made reservations in advance. We’d pick up a travel magazine, or open up a map app and look around for a restaurant whose name caught our eye. Much like how going to the beach meant grabbing a towel, book and a beverage without the rest of the luggage it now entails-but that’s a different blog altogether.

After a very fun visit to a museum we surprised our kids with as a reward for achieving honor roll at school, we “attempted” to find a restaurant to continue our celebration. Sadly, our evening quickly took an unfortunate turn. Hundreds of restaurants within our reach, yet nowhere to eat. Wandering the streets with two kids, temperatures ideal for snow tubbing, hungry, and tired, made for a less than desirable, extremely frustrating experience. We must’ve put our names on a minimum of 6 different spots, none of which had a wait under 120 minutes. Other restaurants we were directed to either were not kid friendly, could not seat us at all, or offered amazing cuisines which my husband and I would’ve loved to try, but none that either of our kids would be willing to try. Where is there a chicken breast when you need one?

How is it possible that with a handful of apps on our phones on which we had filled out personal inventory after personal inventory, completed surveys, and created lists of “likes” or “interests” that not a single one could direct us to a place wherein we could find the types of locations we frequent? Thankfully, we were only miles from home and ended up finding a local pub that at least sat us within a reasonable time. Had our children had any dietary restrictions, or had we been in a foreign city or country, I can only imagine how our night would’ve ended up.

Embarking in new adventure with your children provides some of the greatest, most rewarding experiences for parents. It isn’t about the check mark on a bucket list. It doesn’t have to be perfect or glamorous affair. The true rewards come from the journey, the experiences, and the moments in between. None of which is possible with hungry kids, which equal grumpy kids.

My phone can tell me where I am, what the weather is going to be like in the next 120 minutes, and what store I can find the minute I turn the corner. Once it can use that data, in conjunction with my personal profile and the hundreds of cookies it currently applies towards irrelevant ads, it will easily eliminate unpleasant encounters like this one and in their place provide the personalized experiences that ALL parents can enjoy and hope to repeat.

By,

Jan G.