Haley Johnson
When you're presented with two choices — 1. take your baby on a once-in-a-lifetime trip through Europe or 2. stay home and watch "Bluey" reruns — you obviously choose the former.
Sure, I've traveled out of the country several times … but doing it with a baby? That's an entirely different ballgame.
Ultimately, my husband and I decided it was a worthwhile trip (although if you had asked us mid-meltdown on the streets of Paris, we might have answered differently).
Here are the three big mistakes that made our trip to London and Paris harder than it needed to be.
Not planning the trip around the baby
Haley Johnson
When someone else plans your trip — a person without kids — do yourself a favor and double-check that itinerary.
I foolishly thought our baby would nap on the go, and that we could sneak out of dinners early to keep bedtime somewhat on track. Cute theory. Didn't happen.
Case in point: we had tickets to see "Les Misérables" in London. Amazing idea — unless you're traveling with an infant.
Obviously, you can't stroll into the theater with a baby, and we didn't exactly have a babysitter on call in a foreign country, so the tickets went to waste.
That wasn't the only thing we missed. We had plenty of prepaid activities that went unused simply because we desperately needed a quiet, dark space where our baby could nap.
Looking back, I also wish we had sought out more parks and baby-friendly stops. Instead, we found ourselves constantly battling cobblestone streets and narrow sidewalks with a stroller that suddenly felt like a ball and chain.
Paris was the hardest — no high chairs at restaurants we visited, endless stairs, and streets that felt like an obstacle course. Next time, I wouldn't even bother with a stroller. I'd just strap on the carrier and call it a day.
Trying to keep a routine
Haley Johnson
At home, my baby has a strict nap and bedtime schedule. He thrives on his routine, so I assumed we could simply take it with us.
Reality check: Babies don't care about your color-coded calendar when they're jet-lagged in another time zone.
The turning point was when I finally let go of the idea of structure. Instead of watching the clock, we followed his lead.
If he fell asleep in the carrier at 3 p.m., great. If he stayed up way past his bedtime because we were at dinner, we just rolled with it. Once I stopped trying to control everything, the whole trip felt lighter.
Basically, the sooner I accepted that European travel with a baby is more about survival than schedules, the better time we all had.
Attempting to do too much
Haley Johnson
Our itinerary looked amazing on paper: dinner reservations, walking tours, museums, and day trips.
The problem? It wasn't made for a family traveling with a baby. By day two, it felt like we were trying to run a marathon.
Babies don't care that you've booked a 2 p.m. tour of the Louvre or that you've got nonrefundable tickets for a river cruise. They care about eating when they're hungry, sleeping when they're tired, and letting everyone know when they've had enough.
And once our baby hit his wall, it didn't matter if we were standing in front of the Mona Lisa … the day was over.
What I wish we'd done is pick just a few things we really wanted to do and build the rest of the schedule around naps, snacks, and downtime.
You can't do everything with a baby in tow, but you can still have an amazing time if you stop trying to cram it all in.
Even so, I don't regret taking the trip
Haley Johnson
You could argue the chaos outweighed the fun … and sure, there were plenty of meltdowns (some his, some mine). But honestly, I wouldn't trade it.
I'll never get another chance to see Europe with my baby at that tiny age, even if it meant lugging a stroller up too many staircases and missing half the things we booked.
The alternative would've been staying home. If my choice is between doing nothing in my living room or eating croissants on a Paris sidewalk while bouncing a baby on my hip … I'll take the latter every time.
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