When I have writer’s block, a friend will usually suggest that I “need to get out of my own head,” which is typically true but my head is where most of my writing comes from, so I’m kind of screwed there.
If I’m stuck and I need to freshen my perspective, I turn to my kids and I ask them, what would you change about the travel industry? I did this for the first time in 2011 and again in 2012 in posts for Shermans Travel. And here now is a third installment, exclusive to Traveling Dad, with my children Libby, Maya, and Felix, now 14, 11, and 7.
On the airplane
M: On planes, there should be a room that crying babies can go sit in.
F: Or if a kid kicks the seat, the person in that seat wouldn’t feel it if there was a long, long pillow that you could flip up and down in back of that seat. Plus, the kid could rest his head and neck on the pillow.
P: You mean when the kid was done kicking the seat.
F. Yeah.
F: There should be beds in every class, not just first class.
L: Don’t have middle seats on airplanes. Because nobody likes the middle seat and getting rid of them would save everyone the trouble of fighting over the other seats.
At the hotel
M: Put bins of toys in hotel rooms. Dolls and trucks, and coloring books related to the city or town you’re in. There should be food waiting for the family in the room, too. Also, pets you can rent so you can feel at home in case you left your dog in a kennel.
F. Have a doll house replica of the hotel with glass around it, right in your room, so you can see where everything is.
In the car
F: All cars should come with a pillow of some sort attached to your seat so you can actually lay your head down.
M: Also included in the car should be a vacuum cleaner, throw-up bags, a first-aid kit, and more storage in the seats so you can put more stuff in there.
On the bus
M: There should already be throw-up bags on the bus, too.
In the restaurant
F: All restaurants should do better at keeping in mind kids with allergies.
M: When it starts to be dinnertime, don’t turn off the lights because you can’t see anything and it makes it seem scary.
At the museum
F: There should be food passed around and a tour guide for each family.
{It was at this point that my wife Toby feared my kids would begin to sound a bit too entitled, but I assured her that that ship had sailed a long time ago. At any rate, she had a museum suggestion of her own.}
T: There should be little chairs and tables set up in the museum for kids, with art books written at different kids’ levels that pertain to the art on the walls. And colored pencils and paper for drawing.
L: Make museums less boring, with not so many words. More pictures. And no stairs. Just elevators and escalators. Nobody likes stairs.
When pressed for any advice she’d give to traveling parents, Libby offered, “Don’t let your kids wear Crocs on escalators. And don’t tie sweaters around your children’s waists because it makes them look stupid.”
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