Slinging Around Town - babywearing benefit #6

In my post Have a Baby, Keep Your Life, I touched on the freedom a working parent enjoys when they learn to carry their baby in a sling baby carrier, but I thought the freedom topic warrented a bit more attention. In that post I focused mainly on the ability to get work done, whether in the office or around the house. Now it's time for play!

This time I want to sing the sling praises for all the cool, wonderful places my daughter and I have gone to together while leaving the baby buggy at home. Don't get me wrong, the buggy has its merits, but don't expect me to write a whole series on the benefits of those.

Babywearing benefit #6: Makes fun & travel oh so easy.

Say you're headed out of town for the weekend, or for the week, and you need to get through the airport to the plane with as little trouble as possible. Do you really want to maneuver that ever so sleek and lightweight stroller through a sea of couldn't-care-less travelers who are probably also as late as you? Maybe. But I would definitely keep a sling handy. I wish I had a penny for every time I saw a parent holding a baby while pushing their stroller. How much harder is that?!

I think that for tiny babes, slinging while traveling and doing family activities is especially nice and quite convenient. In the sling, baby can go from quiet observation of all the new surroundings to peaceful slumber without parent or baby missing a beat. Even parents of older children benefit from babywearing while traveling when faced with less than stroller-friendly streets, sidewalks, and shops. During our trip to NOLA last summer, I wore my 20-lb 15 month old on my back. Not only could she enjoy seeing everything I could see, she saw it from a level that was far safer than streetlevel in a stroller. Other times I have worn my daughter while visiting festivals, shopping at Ikea, shopping anywhere really. We often visit home tours and open houses which require you to leave your strollers at the door so you don't ruin the new flooring. How glad am I when I remember to keep an extra sling in the car?! T-h-i-s glad!

What are your favorite activities to do while wearing your baby? Let me hear from you!

Read more about how babywearing really can change your life!