Tricky Travels

I always planned to do a post about traveling with Tricky but I wanted to wait til all the fuss had died down a bit so that everyone wasn't so completely overwhelmed with conference posts that they'd just roll their eyes and click away; so here 'tis.

I was really worried about the flights because children and confined spaces don't really mix. Particularly confined spaces with pressure changes that happen to be hurtling through the air at 800km/h with no way to get off.

At the airport the people around us physically tensed on seeing a baby waiting for the same flight as them. For a moment there I became a mind reader; one look at a person and I could instantly hear their thoughts, as if by magic; "That kid better not be anywhere near me" and "That kid better not cry". It was a warm and welcoming reception of furrowed brows and pursed lips. I felt like telling them to piss off, at least they didn't have to hold the squirmy child for 5 hours.

But I needn't have worried. Tricks slept through take off, woke up for some breakky, had a play, then went back to sleep as we landed in Sydney. I was amazed. He then went straight to Sydney time unlike me who felt those three hours soooo much in the morning.

I was pretty impressed when I got to the hotel and there was a massive stack of goodies from Rock-A-Bye Baby Equipment Hire waiting for us!

The pram was a Quinny Zapp pram and it was brand new! It's really light weight, pretty easy to unfold and designed for travel - it's the smallest buggy when folded (and fits in it's own carry bag that is smaller than a tennis bag). It wouldn't suit an infant because it doesn't recline, but Tricky is old enough now that he doesn't need that. It came with a plastic cover which was heavily used - Map Guy and I walked around all day on Sunday, enjoying the strange wet stuff that fell from the sky - it's been a while since I've seen anything like that, but I think it might have been rain.

The Valco Traveler Portacot and Bubba Blue linen pack were Map Guy's domain - he's put together a portacot before and had much trouble, but this time he read the instructions and whaddayaknow, he got it, first time! Bravo, Map Guy!

By far the best thing though was the exersaucer. When you're staying in a room that isn't baby-proof, having somewhere you can put your kid while you go to the loo is really important and something that I hadn't thought of until we got there. I had just been thinking that it would be great to keep him entertained (which it was) but it served a much higher purpose and I was glad we got it. Pretty sure Tricks would have happily spent hours in the thing and I'm seriously considering buying one for home now that I know he likes it.

Checking out of the hotel we needed one of the concierge trolleys for our 2 suitcases, laptop, baby bag, pram in a bag, portacot in a bag and exersaucer. Kelley from Magneto Bold Too who was checking out at the same time did a double take and again I was blessed with the ability to read minds; "Fuck you guys brought a lotta shit!" (c'mon, it's MB2, you know she swore when she thought it!) so I got to do the whole "Oh nahhhh we didn't bring all this" sponsor plug.

Tricky fell asleep soon in to the plane ride home and the rest of the flight was uneventful unless you count the aborted landing and having to fly around for another ten minutes before we could try again. I'm not a very nervous flyer but almost touching down only for the engines to rev and the plane to jolt upwards kinda made me wish I'd worn brown pants.

So the first flying holiday with Tricky was a massive success mainly due to not having to take care of him for much of it (thanks Map Guy) or having to lug massive amounts of supplies over (thanks Rock-A-Bye Baby Equipment Hire)!

How do you go traveling with kids? Do you hire prams and the like or do you lug it all over with you?

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Glowless rocked the Aussie Bloggers Conference thanks to

HealthyChart and Baby Goes Retro and Simply Colors

Stroller-derby

I am a clever marketer's dream - have a cute logo or even a smart ad campaign and you've got my attention (actually, save time and just put your product in shiny packaging and you've got me) and brand loyalty. But I am also a poor marketer's nightmare – if I think you're trying to pull the wool over my eyes or being condescending then no matter how fantastic your product is, I won't buy it on principle.

I've been inundated with free magazines and brochures on all sorts of baby products recently and they all have the standard “when you want the best for your baby” type slogans and feature a good looking, upper middle class, white mum in her early 30s. Apart from being a massive stereotype they've done their job well, since their target market is in fact, good looking, upper middle class, white mums in their early 30s. I'm not so daft that I believe everything I'm told though, and just because a company tells me their product is “closer to nature” than the next doesn't mean it is, so I'm going to look at the ingredients list and decide for myself (I knew my units on cosmetic chemistry would come in handy one day - I know what all those big words are!). And I know that just because the baby in your ad is cute and smiling when you use “Super Fantastic Nappies” doesn't mean mine isn't going to scream down the house sometimes when I use them – but that's OK, you can gloss over some of those minor details, make it look pretty - thats advertising after all.

There is one ad though, that whenever I see it I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It's for the Steelcraft Strider Plus pram and whilst I'm sure it is a fantastic contraption, the ad features a tall, leggy model dressed in crisp white trousers, black high heels, funky necklaces and not looking a day over 25. I have a few problems believing this is an accurate depiction of a mother;

• those blindingly white pants should have some baby spew or at least a bit of smooshed banana on them

• accessories and high heels are not the first things I think of when I hear the word mother – I'm more likely to think (and wear) jeans and ballet flats. If those flats happen to match my shirt then all the better. The necklace should have some crusted up baby slobber on it too

• this pram is $700 before you even buy the infant carrier section – if you can afford such an expensive pram and your under 25 I want to know what line of work you are in, and can you get me an interview?

• but the absolute kicker? THERE IS NO BABY IN THE PRAM!

Are you sure that's not the friend of the mum just minding the pram while she puts bub in the car? Yes I know, I'm stereotyping too. I'm sure a mother can be glamorous and look like a model – I've seen the pictures of Heidi Klum strutting her stuff down the Victoria's Secret catwalk mere weeks after popping out her fourth – so I know it is possible. Do people really think if they buy this pram they will look like this highly starched goddess?

I'd much prefer the ad campaign to show a normal looking mum (you can still make her good looking, upper middle class woman in her early 30s if you must – I'll let you keep that for now), taking a real child on a shopping trip. Show me how useful this contraption is going to be - how much of my shopping can fit underneath? Can I fold it down and put it in the boot one handed because I'm busy holding a screaming toddler in the other arm? That goes for the harness too - can I do it up with one hand whilst stopping the trolley rolling away and causing car-mageddon? And most importantly, how effectively will it push people out of the way at the January sales?