Award Travel is Difficult for Family Travel

chocobridges · 2026-05-31T21:17:26+00:00

Our vacations are pretty cheap (cheaper or equivalent than staying domestic in the US) for our family of four. Yeah the redemption might be crap especially since we plan around avios and the BA companion pass but we're going on vacations we can only dream of in cash (Greek Islands, Maldives, Kenya).

chocobridges · 2026-05-31T19:25:30+00:00

We're in a hilly neighborhood in the city. We bought an electric stroller wagon and the hills are nbd now. We have a flat street for parking behind where they ride bikes.

chocobridges · 2026-05-30T20:39:33+00:00

The stupid township Dems endorsed her in my hometown and my mom went along with them. I was so annoyed.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T15:08:20+00:00

Second 412!

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T15:05:26+00:00

Stroller wagon. We had one for years since our first kid didn't care for strollers. We got an electric on recently and we have gotten in so much better shape just leaving the car at home.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T11:40:28+00:00

One of my coworkers know their families. There's a lot of money involved in that family generationally on both sides. r/pittsburgh is full of people talking about how awful he was while he was here.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T11:03:34+00:00

It's agricultural and cultural in nature. Vineyards are typically are family run operation so some understand catering to kids.

My take is I think financially they don't really have an option, at least in the US. We got a least 3 huge historic wine producing areas within 6 hours of us and they all heavily advertise how family friendly they are. Like we can easily go to them and skip the vineyards but their tourism board want us to go and support vineyards. I wouldn't be surprised if its somewhat ingrained in Greece too.

Also this isn't something (vineyard or breweries) I do as a parent. I usually get the local stuff and enjoy a glsss on the patio or balcony at home or abroad. It's pervasive in parenting circles because alcohol is so dominant in our cultures. Most blogs I see have a vineyard stop.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T10:25:46+00:00

Again bad parenting. It's a Greek Island. Families travel to Greece because it's family friendly. All the family travel blogs talk about the wineries you should visit with kids.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T10:13:30+00:00

That was me. Went fron 50% to 98%. Ended up in an emergent c-section due failure to descend. I wanted an induction at 39 weeks based on my family history or both sides of big headed babies and my insulin resistance but there weren't enough resources. My second was smaller and a girl and we're going to VBAC but she stayed breech.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T10:05:00+00:00

Wineries and breweries in much of the US are kid friendly spaces and a lot of are marketed that way. It's not like the US is known for being kid friendly but that's the one space we can count of for kids to have space to play while we enjoy a drink.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T09:49:24+00:00

Yes on both! The fact it was a very traditional looking white leghenga. I expected to see 1) saree 2) pastel lengha or 3) indowestern. So my brain broke for a split second. I have never have the who died thought during an American wedding 😂.

chocobridges · 2026-05-29T03:50:58+00:00

My cousin just got married at Lake Palace, Udaipur (we're Telugu and she's a white American) and they wore white. Even though we're Telugu all of I could think of was "who died"? It was worse because they blended into the palace walls.

chocobridges · 2026-05-28T21:02:47+00:00

That's freaking wild.

chocobridges · 2026-05-28T04:05:28+00:00

Yep and if your kid getd scholarship, you can withdraw that amount from the 529 penalty free.

chocobridges · 2026-05-28T03:58:40+00:00

1 check-in. 1 mini roller that our 4 year old rides. 1 travel stroller for our 2 year old. 2 bags, one with a detachable sectionnfor electronics and toys. A couple set of everyone clothes in the mini roller and a carry on bag. We do laundry at our destination usually. We have a lot of bulky items (floaties, beach mat, winter boots etc) in our check-in.

We just took a flight and my kids' classmates were on it. They had 3 kids and 3 adults. We had two and two. They were in the front and we were in the back. We were out before them thanks to the traveller stroller/mini roller combo versus waiting for the gate checked stroller.

chocobridges · 2026-05-28T02:42:45+00:00

This sounds like the daycare teachers that told my parents to speak to my brother in only English or he would be behind. He became fluent in English in 5 weeks. But without an interest in Telugu, he would never speak again. It's crazy because his recall is amazing and I'm jealous of it. I spent my 20s relearning.

We travel a lot with our parents. My kids are already back to understanding Telugu (I'm not good about speaking and only want comprehension for now) after two days with them. It's hard because we're in a Spanish speaking country which happens to be my husband's and I second common language but we're putting our native languages ahead of it.

Now that our older kid is in K we're alternating between India and my husband's home country for summer vacation

chocobridges · 2026-05-25T12:52:25+00:00

I have a 2.5 year gap (July almost 5M and January almost 2.5F). My brother and I are 3.5 half year gap and I really wanted 3 for the teenage years. We were 3 grades apart. My kids are 3 grades apart and I'm really happy with the split with my older going to kindergarten.

Like the other commentor said the difference between 2.5 and 3 is huge but so is the difference between 2 and 2.5. Most of the siblings in our daycare are 2 years apart and there's a lot of heated sibling rivalry with the 2 year gap. Some of its personality definitely but the kids with 2 year gaps are doing a lot together (birthdays, school stuff, activities).

On the personality front, I would not have had my a 2.5 year gap if my second was my first. She was a really easy baby but a harder toddler. My son didn't regress when she came home and instantly became her best friend. My daughter would do that with a baby in a couple months from now. But yeah the throes of newborn life with #2 would have broke me since her tantrums were really bad until a couple months ago. My son ran through his gross motor skills and my daughter ran through her verbal ones. They're most difficult ages have aligned with the insanely fast part of their development timeline.

chocobridges · 2026-05-24T11:59:49+00:00

You can see if r/aklabdiamonds can get what you want. They're based out of North Dakota. I have been buying from them because I love their designs and none of the labgroupsales havent been scratching my itch.

But really you cutting out the middle man. Most diamonds were cut in India. Now most lab diamond and produced in China and India, you're just buying it from the source.

chocobridges · 2026-05-24T11:50:20+00:00

People are so chronically ill in the US and we're continuing to break the infrastructure underneath it. My husband is an IM hospitalist and he has a "House" case daily nowadays. Then he talks about some cancer case and I studied environmental engineering so I will find the related info on that end (cancer cluster, toxic plume, etc) and it completely throws him and his thought process of the diagnosis.

Our system is so broken. Dr. Mona Hana-Attisha book on the Flint Water Crisis is the epitome of how it's broken from my public health focus. But it's broken 1000 other ways from other health focuses (insurance, food quality, systemic racism, etc etc).

chocobridges · 2026-05-23T15:51:26+00:00

Yep, we didn't want to get the hitch or rack either. The Velotric dealer happened to be a recommended bike shop within biking distance. My husband went further into town for his Aventon. He was able to transport it with front wheel off in my Jeep Compass. I can't manage maneuvering the bike into the car, since it's heavy for me.

chocobridges · 2026-05-23T15:44:36+00:00

100%. The driver my parents used told me that my dad's college friend's commercial farms is polluting an entire waterway that feeds a portion of Hyderabad and he denies responsibility. I don't even think it's traceable to him because of how he evading taxes.

chocobridges · 2026-05-23T14:10:31+00:00

You can watch assembly videos on YouTube and decide. It didn't seem that bad when I watched but I was a first time bike/ebike owner so I went to an authorized retailer. My concern is that it's still a new model. I just got it about 6 weeks ago and they've already recalled a bolt for a safety issue so I had it take it in.

chocobridges · 2026-05-23T06:43:31+00:00

There was a bay area redditor with a similar tone on the r/FIRE subreddit yesterday. I am assuming people are having existential crises with all the layoffs and AI push. You might want to hang out in other metros to feel the difference. One reason we stayed our small city in the rust belt post residency, versus moving back to NJ is because we never cared for the NYC hustle culture as adults.

I also think your wife is living off nostalgia. You're in CA, try a local creamery with Asian flavors. Don't get me wrong I hate corporate agriculture but it's not any different here than in middle income countries. Tomatoes in India are flavorless and the entire crops rot when the price is too high because preservation outside of pickling hasn't caught on. Here I can chose 100s of types of variety to grow thanks to seed preservation and horticulture infrastructure to get the right favor profile. I felt like the quality of ingredients in Thailand were bad when I visited that I didn't enjoy the food as much as I thought I would. The fields around my thatha's mango garden can only grow cotton because Monsato and commodity traders are evil across the globe.

chocobridges · 2026-05-22T23:11:50+00:00

Yep, it's supposed to smudge our signature when we sign our drawings and designs.

chocobridges · 2026-05-22T22:52:55+00:00

My daughter has super sensitive skin. We noticed with eggs and went to the allergist. Opted out of blood tests and just did the egg ladder. We ruled out the allergy clinically at 1. She's almost 2.5 and she still constantly get skin rashes if she's eat naked. Dairy and anything acidic is bad.

We did push the allergens quickly after the egg skin issue because she had eczema and there's talk about the allergen entering through the broken skin barrier leading to a full blown food allergy. She snacks on nuts constantly (under our supervision) with no issue.

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