A lesson well learned

I believe there is a moment in every parent's life when they think they are the worst parent in the world. I experienced my worst-parent-in-the-world moment on July 31 at around 9:30 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time while driving on the TransCanada Highway through New Brunswick, destination unknown.

Dear husband and I, along with darling daughter in tow, were on our way for a fun Maritimes vacation. We had booked a cottage in Prince Edward Island, but our reservation wasn't for a few days. We had decided to take our time and explore New Brunswick. When we rolled into Edmundston late afternoon, a city in New Brunswick near the Quebec border, we thought could automatically get a hotel room. We did contemplate reserving a room, however, we didn't know how long darling daughter would stand the car ride or if we'd have to stop somewhere in Quebec. She did better than expected and we decided to stop in Edmundston for the night.

But there was no room at the Inn, or at four inns for the matter of fact. By this time it was 8 p.m. and flickers of panic started to well up in my stomach. We had no choice other than continue on through New Brunswick. After trying a fifth hotel with no luck, I was in full fledged panic mode. There was tears (from both me and darling daughter). Dear husband was trying to maintain is status as peacekeeper. Darling daughter kept on saying, "done, done, done" over and over again. By this time, night had settled in on New Brunswick and dear husband started working his Blackberry, trying to find a hotel in Fredericton as we were coming to the startling conclusion that every hotel, motel and inn room between Edmundston and Fredericton was filled.

Clutching the steering wheel, hoping that dear husband would come up lucky, I continued driving. Then things got worse. Dear daughter started yelling "poopie, poopie, poopie." over and over again. Unfortunately, there was no where to safely stop. There didn't seem to be an exit for miles and there was no way I was going to pull over on the side of the dark highway. So I kept on trucking through, apologizing to dear daughter.

I knew my daughter was poopie. I knew she had reached her limit in terms of traveling time, but there was nothing I could do. I was in a province I had little knowledge about and on a highway I had never driven on. The watch for moose signs weren't doing anything to ease the panic I was feeling. Panic's best friend, guilt, started to settle into my gut. Why didn't we reserve a hotel room? What were we thinking, especially travelling with a two year old? I may be the shittiest mom in the world, I thought as I listened to my daughter cry on and off from her car seat. Finally, dear husband caught a lucky break and found us a room at the Airport Inn in Fredericton. It was the last room available. (A quick shout out to the the Airport Inn: well worth the stay. Clean and cheap as in $70 cheap). After another hour of driving, we pulled into the night and immediately darling daughter got her diaper changed. I'm not too sure what was going on in New Brunswick that night, but after we reserved our hotel room, the hotel room received three separate inquiries if he had any vacancies.

When we woke up the next morning, we immediately reserved a room in Moncton. We weren't taking any more chances. We had learned our lesson.

I'm not too sure if this is a story that we will laugh at come years from now. When dear husband and I talk about it, I still feel like the worst parent in the world. I'm sure there will be more worst-parent-in-the-world experiences to come, but I never want to relive driving on a dark highway with a crying toddler to destination unknown.