You Can Find Me On The Plaaaayground, Picking Up Friends.

Travel with a toddler is really an exercise in playground hopping.  No more do you romanticize getting lost in windy urban alleys in the ‘old town,’ open to whatever adventure awaits.  No ma’am.  Instead you crave big, open spaces - lots of them - the wider the better so as to accomodate your tornado of a child and their tendency to try and dive bomb out of their stroller/high chair/pick-your-enclosure-of-choice into oncoming passerbys/traffic/pick-your-danger-of-choice.  Hence the playground thing. 

We have learned to strategically choose our housing, dining, cafe-ing experiences near central squares with fountains, parks, playgrounds.  An added bonus to this (in addition to these strategically placed coffee/snack/drink kiosks next to so many of the playgrounds - BRILLIANT, Portugal!) is that, nowadays, I seem to be making all kinds of friends on the playground as well.  One might say I am literally, surfing the grounds for mom friends.  Met a cool Spanish couple the other day between the yellow slide and swingset.  They’ve been in Lisbon (where we currently are) for five years with a daughter a few months younger than Luca – and you better BELIEVE I got both her digits and recs for the best local kid-friendly spots faster than you can say “como esta.”  (And those Spaniards talk fast.)  Met another American woman the other day with a 1-year-old and, just like that, we were off to lunch nearby and plying our kids with whatever snacks we could to give ourselves peace and keep them in their highchairs while she explained how she’d quit her job as a big firm lawyer in San Francisco, moved with her spouse to Singapore and been in Lisbon for about a year now.  (Coincidentally, the other friend I was with when I met her was another ‘fallen’ lawyer who a former co-worker had connected me with and has been in Lisbon about 8 months himself.  Even though he didn’t have a kid, he and his wife had the good sense to suggest we meet that morning at - you guessed it - a playground since I was flying solo with Luca.)  

So, all that to say.  The rhythms and particulars of our travel has certainly changed since our comparatively carefree, child-free round-the-world trip a few years back.  But, such is life.  And turns out, kid-travel - though it can feel like it closes many doors - also opens a few in terms of common space, ground, and kinship with other parent transplants.  And for that I’m thankful.  Funny, but fitting, how I’d use my few child-free moments to write about the ‘child-factor.’  Funny also how our methods evolve but goals stay the same.  In my twenties we all looked for connection at the bar (thank you, creation of dating apps).  In my early early thirties it was friends at work, sports leagues, common hobby spaces (and ok, yes, still hanging out at bars).  Now, it’s cafes and - turns out - anywhere that will distract your kid long enough to have an adult conversation.  Speaking of which, I am currently camped out, typing feverishly, at a cafe awaiting Luca’s arrival so I can start my childcare shift. (Next to the playground, of course.)