Macgyver Mommy

By: Mischelle Weedman Davis

In March 2006, I took my then 13-month-old son Jackson to North Carolina to visit my parents. Although I had been a frequent-flyer in my business days, this was the first time I had traveled with a baby in tow.

As a business traveler I used to dread seeing small children on a plane. To me, small children equaled screaming and seat kicking. Although traveling with little ones can be a more than a little bit challenging, Jackson was a complete angel--the problem was with me. I packed too few diapers for the return trip.

Late Sunday afternoon we were set to fly from Raleigh to DC and then from DC to Seattle. I had been trying to get Jackson to drink a lot of water to keep him from getting dehydrated during the flights---but I didn't think to pack additional diapers to deal with the extra "output". I had remembered to pack toys and snacks. But failing to pack enough diapers represented my inexperience as a traveling mother.

I didn't realize my mistake until we were past security and well down the concourse. There was no time to leave the airport and none of the stores in the concourse sold diapers. Having worked as a marketing manager for 15 years before the birth of my son, I thought that the lack of baby products in the airport was a missed opportunity for the airport retailers.

Since there had been so many moms and babies on our flight to North Carolina I assumed that there would be at least a few on the flight back to Seattle. I decided that I would bum a diaper if I really needed one. Just before our flight left DC I put the last diaper on Jackson.

About 30 minutes into our 5

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