Packing for a trip with kids? Chances are your list of things to do includes taking inventory of everything that's plugged into your electric outlets.
There's the GameBoy (or the DS… or the PSP) and the iPod. Maybe you have a portable DVD player for the car. If you're tough enough, you'll insist on leaving the X-Box home, but please don't forget the charger for the batteries for the digital camera. And maybe you have a digital camcorder as well? While you're rounding up the chargers, wrap the cords up too, or you'll have no way to connect the gizmos to the juice.
How about a laptop? Sure, you'll want to check your e-mail, but the kids will be dying to IM their friends back home. And of course there's the cell phone, which also has a cord and a charger and a case.
In packing my son up for his big trip this summer with a youth group heading to Australia, I found it wasn't the socks, first-aid kit and outerwear for everything from 40-to-80-degree weather that was driving me nuts.
It was keeping track of all the electronics. Was it safe to put a camcorder in his checked luggage or was I taking a foolish risk that it would be stolen behind the scenes at the airport? (I'll let you know when he returns.) Would he be able to tell the cord for the still camera from the cord for the video camera? Would he remember to pull the plugs out of the wall when he was done charging them, or would he leave a trail of electronics at every hotel between Canberra and the Great Barrier Reef?
For that matter, would he even remember to charge them–or is he going to end up standing in a eucalyptus forest, faced with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a photo of a koala bear, and find that the camera has run out of batteries?
What if his roommate has the same model camera or the same color iPod? How will they tell whose is which? In the end, I put labels on everything–but I know how dorky that looks.
And of course since the voltage in Australia is different from here, I had to buy a converter in addition to an adapter, so that everything could be plugged in Down Under.
A few weeks after he returns, we'll be going as a family to Maine. I for one am hoping to limit the electronics we bring to the digital camera–and if my son insists, I guess I'll grudgingly allow his iPod.
But as much as that trip will be a vacation from work and home, I'm hoping it will also be a vacation from being plugged in. There's no cable where we're going, no wireless access–not even a cell phone signal. Just a house and a yard and a lake, and really, what else do you need? As long as we remember to pack our bathing suits, towels and sunscreen, we can leave the gizmos at home.
——
This week's advice:
Take stock of electronics when packing your kids up for a trip, either on their own or with the family. Label everything. Don't forget chargers and cords. If going abroad, head to Radio Shack for an adapter and converter to handle the different voltages and plugs overseas, or order from an online travel supplier like . Think hard before taking expensive electronics with you; check with your insurance agent to see if you are covered in case they are lost, stolen or damaged. Finally, consider leaving all those electronics at home. An unplugged vacation might be the best option of all.
——
If you have a story you would like to share through this column, send it to arewethere@ap.org. Sorry, we cannot acknowledge or return submissions.
