One of my twins got sick right before a trip. I took the other twin, and we had an unexpected bonding time.
- As a twin mom, I rarely get one-on-one bonding time with each of my children.
- But when my son's brief illness kept him home with my husband, I traveled alone with my daughter.
As mom to 9-year-old twins and our family's chief travel officer, I'd been planning my brood's swiftly paced two-week European vacation for many months. Our summer was so intricately scheduled, I'd been saying all along, "For this to work as planned, no one can get sick." And what happened? Of course, someone got sick.
It was my son — with some type of stomach bug that would just not quit. One hour before our airport car was to arrive, I took him to the doctor, who recommended he didn't travel until he was better. So, reluctantly, we had to call an audible.
With no better alternative on the table, I got in the car with my daughter, and my husband stayed home with my son (both of us frantically working the phones to rebook their tickets for the following day).
Amid the unsettling — not to mention hugely expensive — last-minute logistical challenges, I boarded my flight to Rome with my daughter, just the two of us. And although I wouldn't have chosen this path for our family travels, it set into motion a surprising course of events that resulted in an unexpected joy: a magical mother-daughter day alone in Rome, a rare one-on-one bonding opportunity for us both in our twin family unit.
My daughter and I turned lemons into lemonade and flew to Rome together
After close to 24 hours of travel from Los Angeles, we arrived at the Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese, depleted and relieved. The first thing we did was to draw a luxurious bath in our oversized soaking tub for a restorative soak. Then we headed out to an al fresco restaurant around the corner for some cacio e pepe.
That first night we crashed hard, sharing the big bed, and awakened the next morning rejuvenated. We walked together down to the Trevi Fountain and around the Trevi district, paying a street vendor to braid our curly hair in matching styles. We stopped at all the sights of peak interest to the tween girl set — such as an air-conditioned H&M. There, I bought her a cat-emblazoned cropped T-shirt, and she was smitten.
We headed underground for a tour of the catacombs, where the crisp air provided some relief from the scorching summer heat above ground. And, of course, throughout the day, we worked up our appetites enough for at least three gelato breaks. Why not? I started calling it a "yes day," inspired by a family movie of the same name in which a buttoned-up mom, typically inclined to say no, decides to indulge all her children's wishes for a day.
It's rare I get alone-time with just one of my kids
After all, it was unusual circumstances, and it was a vacation — our impromptu girls' trip. While this type of one-on-one bonding may be more common (and more feasible) for parents of singletons, I don't usually get so much of it as a mom of twins. Since my kids were born, we've always traveled mostly as a pack out of necessity and practicality. The unfortunate and unplanned circumstance of my son's stomach bug turned into an opportunity for a cherished connection with his twin sister.
After a pizza dinner, another gelato, and a nighttime walk holding hands — well past both of our typical bedtimes — we headed back to the hotel, wound down with another bath, and waited for her brother and dad to join us around midnight, 30 hours later than originally planned and rather worse for the wear.
Was the experience flawless? Hardly. We'd find out weeks later that we picked up lice from that streetside hair braiding. (Never. Again.) And my son's illness had cost us big in stress, frequent flyer miles, and euros.
But family travel dramas are inevitable; that's just how it is. And my daughter and I agreed that our girls' day together in Rome was among the highlights of our trip — a truly sacred memory in the fleeting days of her childhood.