Today was a travel day with my wife and children.
Which is to say it was long and exhausting.
A connecting flight and a long layover made it even tougher.
Yet, the trip was completed and now my mother can hold her grandbabies for the first time in almost two years.
To all you parents out there traveling with your kids, I feel for you.
There is simply nothing easy about it.
Packing is harder.
Getting to the airport is harder.
Checking in and going through security is harder.
Waiting in the terminal is harder and is usually just chasing those kids through the gate areas.
Even boarding and deboarding the plane is harder.
Everything takes longer and there are so many more variables for something to go wrong or forget something critical (like that one sound machine that makes your baby sleep, wtf is wrong with us).
So yeah, everything just requires more.
More energy, more patience, more understanding.
But even though things are harder, parents know this secret:
The kids make everything more exciting and special.
My children are the greatest sources of both joy and frustration in my life.
The joys far outweigh the frustrations, but they are there. It’s part of the game.
And one day; maybe one day I’ll see my own children trudge through our door, exhausted and frayed from traveling with my own grandbabies.
One thing at a time though, that someday can wait.
For now, time for Dad to get some rest.
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