I find myself in New York City, which is generally a great place to find oneself. I get to the Big Apple regularly for work and it always feels a bit like Sex in the City meets The Mom Show – glamour and motherhood collide (which is a very rare occurrence for me). I’m usually meeting with cool mamas, attending great events and seeing some of the funkiest baby/kid gear on offer. Not bad job perks!
This trip is a bit different and there is a lesson to be shared here. When you have a six-year-old child, I suggest you refrain from promising to do something with her when she is eight. I can assure you, she will remember and hold you to it.
My kid has been interested in NYC ever since she found out daddy-o and I met as NYU grad students back in the mid-1990s. I told her we’d do a trip to NYC for her “Champagne Birthday”. Well, she just turned eight on the eighth (of March), which meant promise fulfilling time came very quickly.
She was not going to let a couple of complications prevent this trip from happening. Forget that I’m three weeks away from having another baby. She also wasn’t bothered that a sister got dragged into the plans either. You can never escape our house with just one kid, so she fully expected (and wanted) another kid in tow anyways. The more the merrier is a familiar mantra in our family, mostly out of necessity.
So this is a different NYC experience for me. I’m not on business and I’m not living the life of a clubbing, pubbing, bad art exhibit attending graduate student. NYC from a kiddie perspective is a whole new thing. After much planning and research, we are cramming the following attractions into our less than two days:
- Times Square (M&M shop, Hershey Shop, indoor ferris wheel at Toys R Us, Disney Store. Note to self: escape all without making a purchase);
- Mary Poppins on Broadway;
- Museum of Natural History;
- Handsome cab through Central Park;
- Lunch at Alice’s Tea Cup;
- FAO Schwartz and American Girl (Note to self: again, escape without making a purchase);
- Dinner at the Starlight Express (singing wait staff);
- Evening view from the Empire State Building;
Luckily we’re flying on air miles and staying at the seediest hotel in Times Square, or this two day excursion would require re-mortgaging the house.
So again, let me re-iterate the moral of the story: don’t make promises thinking “they” will forget – it won’t happen. In the meantime, if you have any NYC suggestions, comment quickly – I’m not here much longer!
RSS
So one of the perks to having a small baby bump is that the poor unsuspecting airline has no idea you have one foot already in the delivery room!!! I daresay I might have to call you a little bit crazy
That aside, it sounds like an awesome trip for you and the girls. No suggestions here…but I will be taking notes so I know where to go when we hit the Big Apple one of these days.
Bon Voyage!
Ugh, I learned this lesson the hard way as well. According to my six-year-old son, he will be watching The Empire Strikes Back on his seventh birthday, drinking Coke on his twelfth birthday, and riding in the front of the car on his thirteenth birthday. There’s more too — that kid’s mind is like an iron trap for future promises. We figure he’ll grow up to be a lawyer.
Hope you had an awesome trip — Mary Poppins sounds so wonderful!
Lady Lib!
I will remember this advice! It sounds like a great NYC trip that I would love to do. Maybe I should promise it for myself
Can’t wait to hear the details and if you actually made it out of those stores without buying anything!
Great advice!
Sounds like a wonderful trip. Can’t wait to hear all the details!
OMG! So much fun for an eight year old. She will remember this forEVER! In my forties, and still have not made it to NYC, I did ask my kid if he’d like to go, but apparently I waited till he was too old. Oh well. Aren’t they all champagne birthdays after a certain age?
OK, back, and didn’t escape american girl….bandits!!