A Boy Mom's World

  This is our family's first time in Europe and Mason's first ever travel outside of the country. The first stop that we have chosen was Paris, France. We landed in Belgium and took the train to Paris.  Our travel from Manila to France took almost 30 hours. Manila to Qatar, 9 hours. Layover, 4 hours. Qatar to Belgium, 8 hrs. Immigration, 2 hours. Brussels to Paris to our Apartment, 6 hours. I didn't feel tired until I have laid in bed when we arrived in France. We slept at around midnight, woke up around 8 am.  Up to this point, I am not sure if I should be sharing this. But just to let you know, I was not aware of how long the travel to Europe was. Maybe I just didn't do enough research and didn't even look at out flight details. 😅 Honestly, nobody talks about how to get there. Everybody is just talking about being there. Nagulat lang talaga ako, because I didn't prepare for it. The first ever long haul flight that we had took us 26 hours including layover and...

Paris has always been one of my dream destinations since I was 12 because of the Eiffel Tower, so when my husband said to me that we are going to Europe last year, I was so excited. I didn't let him know though! So chill lang, like, Ah ok, sure! 😆 I asked him what countries are we visiting, he didn't include France, so I just simply told him we should include Paris in the itinerary, wala lang, sama lang natin since we're already there. 😅  He agreed! 😍  We applied for our visa rather late, we just had a little over a week yata when we receive our visas, so we only booked our flights at that time. All flights to Paris has been sold out, we had no choice but to get a flight to Brussels and then go to Paris by train.  Paris is a super high traffic destination, so definitely all means of travels, plane and train, should be booked super advanced, as in at least 4 months advance. We did not know that until we are booking everything. The train going to Paris directly, from Bru...

We just got back from a 15-day travel to Europe and here are the list of my top 10 Essentials when traveling with your kids.  1. Stroller and Baby Carrier . You will need a stroller until when they are around 8-9 years old. Traveling means walking a lot and it will be very helpful for your kids, they can get to rest without interrupting your itinerary. They can have their naps while you go shopping and sightseeing. Carrier for when your small child doesn't want to walk and doesn't want to ride the stroller as well, this will make carrying a big heavy baby 😅 easier and you can have your hands free.    2. Kids Medicine Kit . In my list are Paracetamol, Rash Creams and Ointment & Bandaids for minor cuts and bruises. You do not know when the kids will catch a fever or get cuts while playing, walking, or running. It is better to have it and not need it than don't have and need it. <this is my reminder to myself whenever we are traveling.  3. Laundry Soap . You may...

  My husband and I loves to travel and it didn't stop us when we had our first child.  We had our first born year 2018 and we started to bring him on our travels at 3 months old. We've been with our first son to many different places and countries.  It was different though with our second son as he was born at the height of the pandemic, but we are slowly and carefully going back to traveling.  Here are some tips (based on our experience) on how to travel safely, fun, and effectively when you have babies tagging along: 1. If you are flying domestic or short haul flight choose a morning flight - during this time, they are not cranky and is in a good mood as they have only woken up. For long haul flights, you will want to get a night time flight - so the kids will just be sleeping a big fraction of the time.  2. Bring a lot of snacks - Bring all your children's favorite snack as you don't want to spend your time looking around the location where you're at ju...

  It is hard to find time for your spouse when you have little kids that always want to tag along when you go out, but that should not stop you from taking your spouse out on a date every once in a while.  My husband and I agreed that we should go out together every week to spend time together and talk about us, set our goals, check what we have achieved so far, politics, other people (maritessing 😜), sports, travel goals, travel plans, the Philippines' infrastructures among many other topics that we may think of.  So far, we have been true to our words for each other on this aspect. Here are some of the things that we do when we go out together. 1. Dinner Date . This is the most common activity that we do everytime we go out, this way we can talk properly without anyone interrupting us every minute. We can hear each other properly and we can think properly and address the things that need to be addressed be it work-related, house-related, family-related, etc. It doesn't...

Every family is different and every parenting journey has another story to tell, but some things are the same, here are my take on things that no one told us about parenting.   1. You will finally get that phrase from your parents - You will understand when you become a parent . It is hard to understand this phrase when you are young, but once you are in their shoes you instantly get it. It is hard being a parent and it is as hard to explain this to your child - we do not have any idea how hard it is.  2. You will accidentally hurt your child and the guilt will be unbearable . Kids are unpredictable, you turn your back for one second and there they are, already crying because they fell down to their face or they get so uncontrollable that you spanked them with a stick or a hanger or a slipper. I opened this up to my psychiatrist and he said that it is ok that the kids get hurt sometimes, or you spank them sometimes, this will make them stronger. And as parents, we get tired an...