Traveling with a Crawler: To floor or not to floor

Before we headed out on our great east coast exploration, I had googled “how to play on a road trip” and “how to play in a hotel room.” After scrolling through the usual message boards the overall consensus seemed to be that if you allow your child to crawl all over the hotel floor you were either 1) consigning him/her to a life with a dread disease, 2) surely intentionally covering your child in others bodily fluids and by the way see option 1, and 3) a terrible unconcerned parent.

With these extraordinary options in mind, we set out on our trip. 12 plus hours in a car with breaks at Denny’s- side note, children love Denny’s and Perkins apparently and Denny’s and Perkins do not cast judgment. Back to our trip- 12 plus hours in a car with no breaks creates a somewhat sleepy, certainly rested child who is ready to rock. And no not like oooh roll around on this nice blanket that was cleaned at our house. No. Rock like how fast can I get to all of the electrical outlets in this room rock.   I thought this might happen and for this reason- board posters call the authorities- decided to operate under plan b.   Free range hotel play (not to be confused with Free Range parenting-lest someone actually call the cops).

Ingredients for Free Range Hotel Play

1. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes (Large size)
2. Lysol
3. Toys
4. Eagle eyes on sockets
5. Plastic Bags

I sprayed the H##L out of each hotel room we stayed in while J took the bear for a 10 minute walk.   I figured the Lysol would eliminate the worst of the remaining offenders from the last guests. Then I used the Big wipes to clean the bathroom floor (yup I did it) and the smaller ones to wipe down the rest of the surfaces.   I placed all remotes in plastic bags because- yuck and finally, removed all other hotel items that looked like they had been there for a while and would be a delicious snack to put in a bear’s mouth and hoped for the best.

He had a great time, we survived and four plus weeks later I think he escaped any dread disease.  I say floor with caution and then enjoy.  It’s hard enough traveling as it is!