A Baby is not a suitcase

Sitting in the lounge room of my friend's house the other day I came out with the statement a baby is not a suitcase.

Now before you assume that my blonde hair had something to do with the comment it is important that I put this statement in the correct context.

My friend is a new mum and flew to Australia with her 3-month-old for Christmas to see friends and family and to introduce her lovely new bundle of joy. Her husband also flew out, however, he only had 4 weeks holiday, so he flew home with new joy separately.

Now, I have flown overseas a few times and for most of those times I have been with friends. On the one occasion I flew alone I recall the difficulty I had managing my back pack, suitcase and handbag through the airport terminal. Not to talk about the difficulty I had when I wanted to try something on.

But what seemed most tricky was going to the bathroom.

There is not enough space in the toilet cubicle to take all items in. I tried. I rolled the suitcase in, put handbag on the hook, and backpack on my lap. But I then could not shut the door. I tried the get in first then manoeuvre the suitcase in (I was standing on the toilet) shift the door and then put backpack on top of suitcase - but the suitcase was against the toilet so now I could not sit down... I then had to consider leaving it outside or to consider leaving a bag in the door, leaving it ajar hoping nobody would come by. The options were not ideal. But when you need to go, you have to make a sacrifice.

Which is how the question came up....So what does a mum travelling alone do when she needs to go to the bathroom? Unlike a suitcase leaving a baby outside is not option you can consider. A baby is not a suitcase. It is not insured, and you can't buy another one if it got lost.

Fortunately, I am not the only person who has queried this situation and even more fortunately there are solutions - people to help. Sometimes. But what if you had a screaming child. You'd be on your own!In considering this question I thought of a new service offering for airports - "The Minute Minder". Like a babysitter but you buy a minder for 30 minute blocks.

A Minute Minder would let you buy time then go Duty Free Shopping without the pram. You can try clothes on without taking the suitcase, backpack, handbag, pram and baby into the change room! The possibilities are endless.

Of course the Minute Minder would have to have a limit on how many kids they mind each 30 minutes and would need to be checked out, but I think single travelling parents would pay $50 to have 30 minutes of 'shop time' or just to sit down and eat a meal with a glass of wine before getting on the long haul flight when the Minute Minders are not to be found and you are relying on the good heart of fellow commuters and air stewards.

I know I'd use one. I'd even consider driving to the airport, even when not flying, to take advantage of the service. Take my niece and nephew there when I am supposed to be babysitting and buy a few blocks of 30 minutes (especially if they have a loyalty card) and go shopping. 

OK maybe I wouldn't go that far, the airport is over an hour away and I wouldn't survive the car trip. But if the service expanded to shopping centres and the beach - I'm buying a yearly pass!