Jim Gaffigan Explains How The Heck He Travels With Five Kids

Comedian Jim Gaffigan and his wife Jeannie live in a two-bedroom New York City apartment with their five freaking kids. If that sounds like too much for you, wait until you hear that they regularly take the whole brood on the road. They once spent a summer together in a bus for Dad’s cross-country standup tour, and they even travel internationally, en masse. The guy is clearly an expert when it comes to traveling with small humans, and he shared some of his know-how in a really great interview with the New York Times.

Gaffigan says he and his wife take the whole crew along with them because they just don’t like being away from their children for long stretches. Aww! But keeping everyone happy and sane requires some creativity:

The requirement is a hotel with an indoor pool. Every now and then we’ll stay at a nicer place or a cool hotel like the Peabody in Memphis where the kids can see the ducks. I make my older kids write a single-page diary entry on every city we go to. If we’re in Kansas City, they’ll say, “We went to Kansas City, and Dad made us eat barbecue.”

That is good dadding. As for going abroad:

But, there’s this perception that with international travel it’s not worth it because they don’t get it. I think they do. And I think they see their parents behave differently in different cultures. My kids are pretty good travelers. I think they’re more sturdy because of it, more resilient.

The people sitting across the aisle on a seven-hour flight to Rome are likely more resilient as well. The entire interview is really wonderful, though it’s unlikely to make you want to hole up in a postage-stamp-sized apartment with six other people who mostly can’t wipe their own butts yet. Let alone take them on the road.

h/t New York Times

Image via Getty