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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be a bit in awe of this mum?

18 replies

clairemcnam · 12/05/2019 21:35

Just read about this mum and her DP who went travelling around the world for 10 months with their 10 week old baby. I just can't imagine even contemplating doing this.

www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/travelling-materinity-leave-newborn-baby-backpacking-karen-edwards-a8035721.html

OP posts:

losingmymindiam · 12/05/2019 21:57

Bonkers. But why not if it suits you? Why does the article call her Edwards throughout the whole thing? It's really irritating for some reason!

hidinginthenightgarden · 12/05/2019 22:01

Not too hard at that age if you are BF.
Clothes are small to pack, no need for bottles/sterilisers etc. Use slings not prams, cosleep so no cot.
Sounds fab!

arethereanyleftatall · 12/05/2019 22:01

I wouldn't have thought this was particularly unusual. When I was travelling (sans baby!) it was perfectly normal to meet a family or two in a back packers. After all, babies are born in every country.

stucknoue · 12/05/2019 22:09

We travelled a lot when ours were small, it's actually easier before they eat solids. Nothing as adventurous as this but good luck to them

Passthecherrycoke · 12/05/2019 22:12

I love this idea. You’d have to have money though, neither of you earning

mellicauli · 12/05/2019 22:36

Personally I wouldn't have wanted my travelling spoilt by having a baby in tow..and I wouldn't have wanted my time with my babies spoiled by travelling. Both wonderful experiences, but they would be dimished by combining them.

Ohyesiam · 12/05/2019 22:39

I think little babies are much more portable than bigger kids. Travelling means no work to get up for, so totally flexible timings for everything.
Brest feeding is a must though.

m00rfarm · 12/05/2019 23:09

Much easier before they start walking.

Complainingagain · 13/05/2019 03:25

I met lots of couples while travelling who had brought along their kids. I think it's not really that fair on the baby, to be honest. My baby gets sick when we travel abroad very easily and this seemed to be the case of a lot of the small babies I met travelling. One couple I made friends with insisted on staying in all the backpacker haunts (little beach huts, hostels, all with no air con, loud, etc) with a really small baby and a toddler. The toddler just seemed bored to tears a lot of the time, wandering around alone playing in the dirt because there were no other children/nobody particularly interested in her to play with (a bunch of backpackers aren't really the most child friendly bunch) and the parents kept getting stuck places for longer than they wanted to stay as the baby kept getting sick and couldn't travel. None of them seemed to have much fun. I backpacked and travelled a lot before kids. Now I have kids I'd take them to the same sort of locations - I love seeing and learning about different cultures - but I'd not be travelling around with them. It's not fair on them and I don't think I'd have much fun either.

PregnantSea · 13/05/2019 03:44

We did loads of travelling and backpacking before we had babies. Seemed to be the better way of doing it. I would hate to have had a baby with me in that time. The fun of it was the spontaneity, roughing it and the fact that we occasionally did stuff that was a bit dangerous/mysterious. I wouldn't dream of doing anything like that with a baby. I'm very happy enjoying my baby in my house where it's clean, quiet, spacious, and DH earns good money and we don't have the stress of traveling.

Each to their own though!

NowWeAreSuckingDiesel · 13/05/2019 05:15

Why does the article refer to her daughter and her Instagram posts which are quoted in the article refer to 'he' for her baby?

AmeriAnn · 13/05/2019 05:39

I am also confused by this.

GPatz · 13/05/2019 05:41

I'd rather travel with a 10 week old than a 10 month old anyday!

OpportunityKnocks · 13/05/2019 06:17

Sounds like hell!
Then again, I am sat here nursing my newborn not having showered in 3 days.

I wish I had it a bit more together! So yanbu :)

Limpshade · 13/05/2019 06:22

When I was a backpacker in Thailand some 15 years ago I met a woman who was travelling solo with a very young baby, and I was in awe of her too. She had a DH but he was working abroad for an extended period and she figured, why should he get to do all the travelling?! We teamed up for a few days and I have a very vivid memory of us taking a boat tour together and the baby napping in the sling the whole time. One night at dinner, she left me with the baby so she could go to the bathroom. The baby started crying and wouldn't stop so I walked him around inside the restaurant to calm him down, but when she returned and I wasn't at the table, she panicked. I felt very bad about that!

I've had two refluxy babies and there's no way I'd have found backpacking with a baby "easy" like one PP suggested! Since becoming a mum I've thought of her a few times and my appreciation has deepened!

Fraxion · 13/05/2019 06:25

Why does the article refer to her daughter and her Instagram posts which are quoted in the article refer to 'he' for her baby?

Because she now has two children, girl and a boy.

notso · 13/05/2019 06:51

Being on holiday for a week gives me a cold sweat. There's no way I could do it for 10 months!

NowWeAreSuckingDiesel · 13/05/2019 18:30

Fraxion

That isn't clear at all, and surely the maternity leave trip was during one of maternity leaves: either the girl or the boy's, not both! The article is very poorly written. Where does it say she has two children?

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