Litta Bitta Life: Packing List

In North America we seem to have an endless supply of toys, equipment, gizmos, and gadgets for babies. Never was this fact made more clear to me than in 2015 when I attended the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas as a vendor. This show is advertised as "The World of Juvenile Products - All In One Place" and draws more than 1500 booths all focused on the world of baby. Walking through aisle after aisle of vendors was frankly overwhelming and you realize how much of the market is filled with products that are aimed at solving a problem that perhaps doesn't actually exist just to create the demand.

For the past four years our own basement has been storage to much of the baby gear used by my eldest son when he was under a year old. Ironically it feels like humans take up the most space when they are smallest; there was a crib, travel crib, exersaucer, car seat, stroller, two bouncy chairs, foam play mats, portable high chairs, and multiple ride-on toys. When my son turned ten months old we had our first family vacation to London, England for my cousin's wedding. While making a list of "necessities" for my son including gear for travel and mealtime I wondered how in the world we could pack everything onto the plane. Do we bring a car seat or rent one after we arrive? Do we take the stroller or just use the carrier everywhere we go? Do we use the travel crib or just share the bed? Where will he nap if we don't bring the travel crib? Annoyed, I started complaining to my mom about what a hassle it would be to travel with a baby.

Then, without an ounce of sarcasm, my mom nodded and shared how she had also found it a challenge to pack for my brother as a baby when they left Vietnam back in 1979. "We could only bring two bags," she remembered, and went on to describe some items she packed away for their journey - not headed for vacation but instead an escape on a junk ship that would ultimately take 36 days to reach the refugee camps in Hong Kong. My brother was less than a year old.

So that jolted me back to reality and put my troubles into perspective. I grew up hearing the stories of my parents leaving Vietnam so I can absolutely recognize how trivial my problems are by comparison. The fact that I could even forget for a moment what they would have gone through shows how blessed and easy my life has been.

I think back occasionally to this conversation I had with my mom. It makes me chuckle (and feel ashamed) at how absurd my complaints about whether or not to pack a stroller would have sounded followed by my mom's completely offhand recount of leaving her life behind. Could I pack up my life into two bags? I've over-packed for almost every trip I've ever taken.

Lesson to be learned here is that you can get by on so much less than you think, and when necessary you can get by on even less. Almost everything is a luxury.