Deciding Whether to Take Separate Flights When Traveling With Your Spouse

Although I have never talked it about publicly before - both my parents died in a Pan Am plane crash in Pago Pago in 1974 en route home from visiting relatives in New Zealand. Ever since we had our two kids, now 16 and 15, my husband and I (married for 22 years) have taken separate flights. Our policy is that we will fly together if the whole family travels together. And the truth is- it’s worked great. It gives us peace of mind that if tragedy should strike, we have one of us left standing to raise our kids. We always manage to arrive at our destinations within about 1/2 hour of each other.

Losing both my parents at age 12 proved such a tragedy- but one that I have emerged from with a wondrous life. And now I realized that I could share my takeaways with other parents out there angsting about this decision on splitting flights (and picking a guardian for your kids which unfortunately goes along with it if you decide to fly together and proves so tough to find the right family member or best friend).

This issue just resonates to my core, without being a morose topic. The fact is that life is unpredictable, and stuff happens. Here’s some key takeaways I have realized.

Quiz: Why Don't Your Eyelashes Grow and Other Curious Questions from Kids

As a mom, my daughters, Andrea and Julia, are always asking me questions. But as a physician and a mom, my daughters like to ask me questions about health and the human body. We’ve compiled these questions into a book, called, Why Don’t Your Eyelashes Grow? Curious Questions Kids Ask About the Human Body (Avery, 2008). (Be sure to check out Mom Central's review of the book here.) Here is a quiz based on the book—see if you know the answers to your children’s questions!

1) Why do you have earwax?
a)    to help you hear better
b)    to protect your delicate ear drum
c)    to prevent ear infections

The State of the Sandwich Summit: Kraft and Oscar Mayer

Mapping the Lunch Landscape

The day started with a 4:00 a.m. drive to the airport, calling forth those sleepless nights when my kids were babies who awoke on an owl’s schedule all their own. Two planes later, I stepped forth into Madison, Wisconsin at a brisk (aka freezing!) 40 degrees and headed off to Kraft’s Oscar Mayer headquarters. The Kraft complex here has the aura of an old-town, Midwest manufacturing complex, and I speak from the experience of growing up among the steel mills that dominated Pittsburgh. With tall smoke stacks in the rear, a fleet lined up with products coming and going, and a more modernized circa 1980’s office building front, it appeared amidst a middle class neighborhood just as I would have expected from a brand that has been around since I was small (and would walk home from elementary school singing my heart out on the O-S-C-A-R M-A-Y-E-R commercial theme song).

 

How to Save on Sports in the Summer

Major League Fun on a Minor Budget

from FabulousSavings.com

School's out, the temperature's up, and your kids want something to do. Encourage them to get out and get active with sports to do in the summer that won't make your budget sweat.