Janet Christie's Mum's the Word

Travel light, or maybe not at all?

Mum's the Word Pic: J Christie

With headlines of travel chaos - queues at check-ins, cancelled flights, lost baggage - I’m tempted to wake up Youngest Child and say ‘maybe we shouldn’t try to go on holiday tomorrow. It’s almost sunny here’. But Princess Positive stamps on that kind of glass half empty talk so I drag out the cases.

Way back through the mists of pre-covid time, three years ago when this trip to Spain was booked, I promised her a check in the hold suitcase. She doesn’t travel light, with multiple outfit choices and bags of can’t-do-without cosmetics - plumpers, primers, spoolies and assorted mystery-to-me objects. Meanwhile a carry-on cabin bag suits me – laptop, book, swimsuit, T-shirts, sundress, flip-flops but even so, I’m struggling to close my bag so I take the bold step of waking her up.