DEAR AMY: My sister will earn her Ph.D. out-of-state this summer.
My wife and I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old.
Bringing the whole family would be too much for the one-year-old to handle.
I’d like to bring our older child, who is close with the graduating aunt.
My wife doesn’t support the older child going with me because she wants to be there for that child’s first airplane flight.
She acknowledges that this is a selfish desire.
Should we go as a family, despite the headaches that will come from flying with a baby, or should I go solo?
– Harried Husband
DEAR HARRIED: I have to admit that as someone who has flown – a lot – with my daughter when she was a baby and a toddler, and subsequently with many other children of varying ages, I don’t see flying with a three-year-old as being the important and unmissable milestone your wife seems to perceive it to be.
(I still have flashbacks of running from one end of the Dallas airport to the other with my daughter, repeatedly dropping our carry-on luggage and assorted backpacks as we went.)
If the trip to your sister’s graduation is a direct flight of three hours or less, I would take the whole gang. If the trip requires a complicated connection, I would suggest you go solo.
(You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.)
