Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Surviving a hotel stay with kids under 6

My very first Works for Me Wednesday!! Be sure to look for more! After our recent family reunion in Atlanta, I needed to share a few things that made our life much easier. Keep in mind that hubby was only able to fly in for 1 1/2 days of this 6 day trip, so it was me and the little ones trying to survive in a new environment.

1. Hotel bathrooms are pretty, but not practical. Be sure to pack a small bathroom stool (we have a tiny grey Rubbermaid stool that we bought for under $5 years ago. The little guy needs the stool to get up on the potty. The bigger kids need it to stand at the sink to wash their hands.

2. Speaking of washing hands....bars of soap gross me out. There, I said it, I have issues. A fresh container of pump soap means everyone is actually washing their hands with real soap and water.

3. And since I'm confessing of our bathroom issues...my youngest two are petrified of self-flushing toilets. And since our trip involved visiting a few fun places, I was sure to pack my "magic stars". Magic stars are star-shaped sticky notes that I stick on the wall over the auto-flush sensor, so that it won't flush when my kids shift their barely non-existent weight on the toilet. My poor daughter, whenever she reaches forward for some toilet tissue, the toilet flushes so she leaps off. Life is so much easier now that we have the magic stars.

4. Hotel rooms are dark. We were sure to pack two night lights - one for the room and one for the bathroom. Everyone was happy. If only I can do something about all the door slamming that happens in the middle of the night in the hallway.

5. Finally, no trip is complete without the mini pizza cutter. We didn't actually eat any pizza on our trip. But with 3 kids ages 6 and under - I spend half of my meal cutting food. A pizza cutter can rip through some pancakes like nobody's business. Not to mention chicken breasts, baked potatoes, steamed veggies - it only takes a few minutes to make things more bite sized for my smaller ones with my handy dandy pizza cutter.

8 comments:

Carrie said...

Want to know the solution for the slamming doors? A white noise machine. Works like a charm at home and while traveling too. :-)

Annikke said...

THose are great tips! The pizza cutter... such an awesome idea!

I also carry disinfectant wipes and immediately wipe down telephone, remote and tv. Don't even want to THINK about who touches all that stuff! Ick!

Anonymous said...

I like the star sticker idea - I hate automatic flushing toilets for that very reason!

cathy said...

We carry a white noise machine. It doesn't drown out everything (like slamming doors), but it smooths out all of the weird sounds and makes it so much easier to sleep.

And love the star sticker idea! That's a keeper!

Rachel said...

I love the pizza cutter idea. Genius!!!!

Thanks for sharing.
Rachel
thetrystingplace.blogspot.com

Meg said...

Love the magic stars!

bekah w said...

Thank you so much for the pizz cutter idea! That is just great! I'm with on the nightlights and will try to remember post its for the toilets because they've freaked my kids out before, too.

amy@flexibledreams said...

Great ideas all around! And a very nice first WFMW post :)