Two Kids is Harder

Travelling with two kids is undeniably harder than one kid and a baby.

There's obvious wins. They're increasingly good at playing together as Maeve's speech is coming in clearer every day. They also make each other laugh.

But as Maeve becomes a fully formed kid with thoughts and feelings, our two strong-headed daughters can really set each other off. Disagreements become screaming matches fast. And Maeve is very willing to grab a fist of hair (Nora remains remarkably non-physical). The tiniest difference in opinions can explode before we have a chance to disarm the conflict.

When they're good, it can feel like travelling with tiny friends. They can be funny, curious, and interesting. But when they're set off, you really remember that they're 4 and 2.

As Copenhagen is our first unstructured longer stay, Tuesday was our first casual day. And we forgot that we needed a strategy. We didn't bring coloring books to the restaurant. We didn't invest enough time burning off energy at a park.

But today we came back stronger, more determined, and with a common enemy: our children's potential bad moods. It was definitely better.

Here's the running strategy:  

• Wake slow (9:30ish), eat yogurt and play at the apartment in the morning.
• Lunch around 11:30 – bring activities (stickers, coloring, doodleboards) so we can sit for an hour.
• Go to busy park. Have kids run off anything they can (today that was until 3:30PM).
• Nap walk. Maeve will nap. Nora will get some quiet imagination time. James and Jo get coffee and a treat. And something like 5,000 steps.
• See something. Could be a garden. Could be a view. Probably not inside.
• Eat dinner. Redeploy activities, lean into conversations about the day. Drink minimum 2 glasses of wine.
• Back to apt for 7:30/8 – get clean,  read books, sleep.