I find myself in New York City, which is generally a great place to find oneself. I get to the Big Apple regularly for work and it always feels a bit like Sex in the City meets The Mom Show - glamour and motherhood collide (which is a very rare occurrence for me). I’m usually meeting with cool mamas, attending great events and seeing some of the funkiest baby/kid gear on offer. Not bad job perks!
This trip is a bit different and there is a lesson to be shared here. When you have a six-year-old child, I suggest you refrain from promising to do something with her when she is eight. I can assure you, she will remember and hold you to it.
My kid has been interested in NYC ever since she found out daddy-o and I met as NYU grad students back in the mid-1990s. I told her we’d do a trip to NYC for her “Champagne Birthday”. Well, she just turned eight on the eighth (of March), which meant promise fulfilling time came very quickly.

She was not going to let a couple of complications prevent this trip from happening. Forget that I’m three weeks away from having another baby. She also wasn’t bothered that a sister got dragged into the plans either. You can never escape our house with just one kid, so she fully expected (and wanted) another kid in tow anyways. The more the merrier is a familiar mantra in our family, mostly out of necessity.
So this is a different NYC experience for me. I’m not on business and I’m not living the life of a clubbing, pubbing, bad art exhibit attending graduate student. NYC from a kiddie perspective is a whole new thing. After much planning and research, we are cramming the following attractions into our less than two days:
- Times Square (M&M shop, Hershey Shop, indoor ferris wheel at Toys R Us, Disney Store. Note to self: escape all without making a purchase);

- Mary Poppins on Broadway;

- Museum of Natural History;

- Handsome cab through Central Park;

- Lunch at Alice’s Tea Cup;

- FAO Schwartz and American Girl (Note to self: again, escape without making a purchase);

- Dinner at the Starlight Express (singing wait staff);

- Evening view from the Empire State Building;

Luckily we’re flying on air miles and staying at the seediest hotel in Times Square, or this two day excursion would require re-mortgaging the house.
So again, let me re-iterate the moral of the story: don’t make promises thinking “they” will forget - it won’t happen. In the meantime, if you have any NYC suggestions, comment quickly - I’m not here much longer!