ADVICE please: Long road trip to Wrigley w/ 2 sons...Am I crazy?
justBE23
Posts: 45
My boys are13 and 9, and I have a chance to get 3 tickets to N2 for their first big show. It’s an 11 hour drive, but they are both up for it. Is this a crazy idea to do the whole concert day ordeal as a solo parent? Looking for feedback from fans who may have done something similar.
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I'm all for taking kids (even young kids) to shows, and I love your spirit in doing this!
Gotta also say, I think you'll have the best chance of it being a great experience if you're SUPER REALISTIC about some of the realities. I've taken younger kids to many shows, and I roadtested their 1) enthusiasm or 2) tolerance for the experience locally before taking them on any real roadtrips.
Since you've already committed and spent a ton of money on tix, here's my advice:
1. It's a long roadtrip. For each kid, think about what helps them be in the best moods for such a trip, and also, if you can travel at night when they'd be asleep for a big chunk of it (but obviously only if you're able to stay awake and make the drive safely), do as much of that too, makes the trip shorter for them. But also load up on "goodies", be it books, movies on a computer/phone, get Netflix if you don't already have it (it would be worth the $15 or so if it occupies your kids), video games, more books. Art projects that won't wreck the car.
Bring a bunch of stuff that will keep your boys occupied and make the ride shorter for them, that's best for everyone.
2. Take care of yourself! What foods and drinks make you feel better and keep your energy up? Don't assume you'll find all that stuff on the road. Get a cooler and shop for the stuff (food your kids love too), and have as much of it with you as you can travel with. That is also really important. MUSIC, what music do you and the boys love? Switch off, but it's most important that the driver be happy and awake, so make sure you've got what you love.
3. Show Tips:
a) BRING EAR PLUGS!!! LOTS OF THEM! I have a 9 yr old too, and I have noise-cancelling ear protectors for both kids (like the big headphones people wear on airport runways), but since you don't have time to grab those, make sure you've got foam ear plugs that you roll and insert in your ears. IF either kid is not feeling the music, at least they won't also feel like they're going deaf. I'm a veteran concert goer and I was surprised by how my ears felt after Seattle 2, during the show I didn't feel like it was so loud, but it was pretty loud apparently. Bring a lot of ear plugs.
b) Understand that if your kids aren't used to going to big giant concerts (Wrigley concert capacity is around 41,000 people), again think about what you know of your kids. For some kids that can be overwhelming, for others it can just be exciting and new. What are your kids like? Even for those who like it or are fascitnated by it, be ready for the fact that you may have to take breaks and walk around the concourse with them during the show just to change it up a little and give them a break. Also, depending on where your seats are, great sight-lines of the stage are not guaranteed (especially for the 9 yr old), so just be ready for a bit of disengagement during the show if they don't know the music well and can't see so well. You know your kids - just think a lot about what you know helps them to be happy and have positive attitudes.
Or, if you're super lucky and your kids are way easy-going, maybe most of this won't be issues at all and they'll be cool! I just feel like most kids, as parents kind of bringing them into this new situation, we need to take what we know of them and prep as much as possible for how to apply it in the stadium concert setting.
c) BRING DISPOSABLE RAINCOATS!! What's the forecast for Chicago? Even if it's sunny, bring them anyway! Hopefully it won't rain, but if it might you will all be SO MUCH HAPPIER if you have little plastic raincoats than if you have to try to run for cover and you get all wet. If it's gorgeous, the worst that will have happened is you spent like $10 on little packets of raincoats that you can always bring to the next PJ stadium show you take them to
d) To use during the show, but about after the show: Don't know how long you can stay in Chicago, but if you can think about what each of your kids is WAY into right now and see if there's a sight, museum, food, something in Chicago that they'd love for the day AFTER the show, if worse comes to worse you can promise them DURING the show as they possibly get cranky or don't wan to stay (remember, PJ does 2.5 - 3 hour shows!), if worse comes to worse use bribery and keep reminding them that if they stick it out and have good attitudes, they'll get to do _________ in Chicago the next day, or when you get home they'll get something special they wouldn't usually get.
e) This one is HARD but I'm just telling it like it is: As much as all of us serious PJ fans want to stay in our seats until the very last note of Yellow Ledbetter ends and we see the band go offstage and we're sure there's no more..... Once they've done one encore, seriously think about a few songs into the 2nd encore heading with your kids to the top of your section or wherever the entry to your seat area is, and watch the rest of the show from there so that once it's definitely over, you're already some of the first folks out and heading to the exits. Especially if you're parked at the venue, you have NO IDEA (unless you've done it before) how many hours you can end up stuck in post-show traffic if you don't jump out fast. I've never been to Wrigley so maybe they're miraculously better at this than other stadiums, but for my Seattle shows it was either go out early or be the very last people to leave (which, since we were meeting people and relishing our show memories, we did the latter), it's just a cluster**** of traffic, people traffic and car traffic.
Hopefully you'll need very little of this advice because your kids will be chill and have a great time and be super-inspired to go to more and more shows and will become giant PJ fans! But not only am I a parent, I work with kids of all ages in my job, and kids are of course a bunch of contradictions and mixed interests and different temperaments. So the biggest key of all is knowing your kids and thinking "What can I prep, bring along, set up for during the show, and do after the show to make this as enjoyable for them as possible JUST IN CASE the show itself isn't enough to keep them quiet or make them happy?"
All that said, I took my 1st kid to Coachella when she was only 1.5 yrs old (not her first show ever though, like I said, I roadtested bringing her to shows locally first). No one I knew ever did anything like that, but I had a reclining stroller, ear protections, lots of bubbles and coloring stuff and other stuff she loved. But not only did she also end up bopping to a lot of the music (until nighttime when she curled up in the reclining stroller and passed out and was oblivious to all until the next morning), but it began a great tradition in our family of bringing kids to shows starting young and they're all big music and live music fans now, although everyone's tastes are all over the place and often don't align, but that's cool too, they've learned how to be patient and have good attitudes because they know THEIR fave band may come around next and if they want to go, they need to be cool at someone else's favorite band's show. But also knowing what increases their patience and endurance is key.
Oh, and if you prep for the hard stuff, you never know what good stuff will happen.
PLEASE come back after it's over and tell us all about your adventure! Hopefully it'll be awesome beyond our wildest dreams! I just believe that is helped along by planning for as many of the hard parts as you can predict will happen. ENJOY!
After I posted it, I went back and edited it a few times with things I forgot. Don't know what the Chicago forecast is but if it's even remotely possible it'll rain, get disposable rain ponchos! Esp if your youngest hates heat, cuz wet heat is even worse.
Please report back when you return, really want to know how it all goes! Wishing you and your sons a FANTASTIC TRIP and hopefully this is the birth of 2 new manic PJ fans!