It’s 9pm and I’m standing in a darkened room. Like a grim sentinel I stand, and I watch. I watch over my children who are still not asleep.
“Mama, why are you just standing there?”
“Because,” I hiss-whisper. “every time I leave the room you two start playing. And I want you to GO. TO. SLEEP!”
“I won’t start playing, and I’ll tell Ben to stop too.” she says indignantly, “I promise.”
I step out onto the balcony, closing the curtains and door behind me. The sound of the air-conditioning unit, and the rain dropping through the trees and thrumming on the metal rooftops drowns out any activity that may be occurring in the room behind me. I decide to trust them. I lean over the partition between the balconies and chat with Alex who is relaxing on the balcony of our other room. Fifteen minutes later I turn, entering the room to find two children, very much awake, making “sleeping nests” out of the bedding.
I hate being right.
We separated them into different rooms. Ben went to sleep immediately. Chloe was still awake at 11:30pm when Alex went over to go to sleep in that room. Seriously child, what the fuck?
Travelling with children definitely has its challenges, night-time sleeping arrangements with a family split between two hotels rooms being just one of them. Actually relaxing being another. I admit, it’s harder than I thought it would be to get anything like photo editing and blog writing done. Finding time for ourselves when the kids need constant attention is no easy task. We need to find a place with some space they can play in by themselves while we do our own thing nearby, preferably with a drink in hand. We thought about heading down to a beach for a week or two, but September seems a bad month to visit any island except Ko Samui, Koh Pha Ngan and Ko Tao. We’ve too many good memories on the latter two islands to want to go there and find them changed for the worse, and neither of us like Samui. So we are going to head North and keep the islands for later in the trip when many of them open up again for tourism. I’m going to hit up AirBnB and see if I can find a nice house with a garden somewhere rural. Throw the kids out to play with the chickens while we chillax. That’s the dream anyway.
All content including images © Leigh Eros 2017. Do not reproduce without permission.
leigh eros 
Oh dear, I think you need to call this entry “ Reality Bites”. Kids add a whole new challenge to travel: it is no longer the escape and unbounded freedom of your youth when there was no one else to worry about. Your little creatures need time to adjust to a new way of living. Their being out of sorts is to be expected. I am sure that they will eventually fall into a new routine and that things will sort themselves out in time. Breathe. Perhaps think about it this way: you are there to show them the wonder of a new world so for a little while why not try to see it through their eyes. Why not focus on a few things in these early stages that will really excite and amaze them while they find their groove. Holding giant butterflies, washing baby elephants. Unlike for you and Alex – adults – this is all a big adjustment and very different from what they know. Perhaps like at home, create some sort of routine to your day – kids need routine. Breakfast, then morning adventures, then lunch, quiet reading/drawing/learning time in the hot part of the day, etc. Give it time and I am sure they will be okay. I so love getting your missives. Love you! Mom xoxo >
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What Mom said. They’ll find their groove. Xo
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