Why You Should Start Traveling with a Good Buddy EARLY

Aside from the ocean of truth behind the Hallmark sentiments on the value of building life-long friendships, there are a few very pragmatic reasons for women to begin travelling consistently with the same buddy, starting early and practicing often. The advantages are huge and compound over the years, just like that mutual fund you wish now you had started when you were fresh out of college. Okay, so I don't have a huge pile of money waiting for me at the end of my career rainbow, but I have something that is worth more: my sanity, the world's best travel buddy, and some tips that might help you get and/or retain both yourself.

Households blessed with little children are complicated. Downloading the database of how to keep it running on an even keel while you take a week to try and remember what it is like to read the newspaper through at one sitting can be overwhelming. By traveling with a buddy outside the homestead, there is one resident parent left behind who already knows which kid will gag if presented with mac 'n cheese or insists on a slice of avocado in their PB&J sandwich, and why the dog howls when the theme music to Sesame Street comes on. This makes the packing and get-away SO much easier.

The arrangement is actually good for everybody in many ways:

• Kids and dads get to experience each other at new angles of encounter.
  
• Dads get to walk a mile in the wee wifey's pumps and gain in one week a course in sensitivity training that would otherwise take years to develop, if ever.
  
• Done at least annually, you build the precedent early in all parties that it's just how it works because "... they always do it."
• Men don't always experience the same zeal for a particular vacation experience as women do, and it turns out to be quite convenient for them to build a fall back position: "Hey, that sounds like something that Travellin' Trudy would enjoy with you! Why don't you go with her and I'll stay home with the kids?"
• By the time the kids have grown up and gone (or just grown up), you and your TB will have built up a common list of "been there, done that" and "been there, when can we go again?" and "we've always talked about going to see X, Y or Z" destinations that will be unique to just the two of you, seriously shortening the planning curve.
• By sticking with the same buddy, you will learn to anticipate and accommodate for personal preferences before you even leave home. For example, with my TB, I know that we will commit to take in absolutely everything we can at a destination while also looking forward to long, frequent and restful pauses. Despite the apparent contradiction here, there is no inconsistency in this and over the years, we have just figured out how to actually do just that. We also have three specific periods that we plan for each day: the latte zone, the "we must remember to drink lots of water zone," and the "isn't it time for a glass of wine?" zone. All the activities we plan just kind of flows through those zones, and for us, it works.

Finally, by consistently doing this in tandem with another household, the parent left behind has the perception that this kind of behavior is normal. In truth, while it is normal for a parent to, well, parent, it's not that common for the spousal unit of the testosterone persuasion to see it that way. At least, it wasn't twenty years ago. Both my TB and I know and gratefully acknowledge that we have been blessed with quite abnormal spouses. And I mean that in all sincerity.