I spent 10 of my most formative years in New York City — those in my 20s and early 30s, drinking, dining, dating, working and generally becoming what passes for an adult.
Then I left for London and a British life with my husband. I love London, but New York is still my spiritual home. That just makes it all the stranger that my kids have never been there.
My daughter did make a brief appearance at 4 months old, doing the rounds to meet my close friends. I remember virtually nothing of that trip except that we stayed in a corporate apartment in midtown that my husband had organised through his job. I anxiously warmed formula and baby rice and put her to bed in a pop-up travel cot I’d borrowed from a friend.
Since then I’ve been back to visit friends on my own, doing the drinking and dining thing (dating is on hold per my husband’s instructions), and generally acting like a long lost New Yorker.
This Easter however, I will be returning with my husband, my 9-year-old and my 14-year-old — a family. I will be experiencing the city for the first time as a mother.
Visiting New York with kids
That means for the first time I’m researching things kids do in the city (funny enough, hitting my favourite cafes before shoe shopping isn’t anywhere on the list). I’m debating the merits of the Guggenheim versus the Moma versus the Natural History Museum for the under-21s and wondering just how many we can cram in. I’m getting advice from friends of friends of places I didn’t even know existed, like the M&M store where you can get your face put on one of the candies and the Sony Wonder Technology Lab.
It’s literally a whole new world. The city has gotten a lot more kid-friendly and kid-cooler than when I lived there. I’ll get to visit sights I haven’t been to since my mother and father came to visit while I living in a Brooklyn apartment next to Prospect Park, like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. (Everybody knows the *real* New Yorkers only see those things when family comes to town.)
Will they fall in love, like I did?
My own love affair with New York began during a cross-country trip with my parents and brother and sister in our yellow station wagon. Back then, Times Square was still a scary place to walk late at night. When we arrived at the first hotel my parents had booked, they went upstairs and came straight back down again, determined we wouldn’t spend a single night there.
The city was gritty and thrilling and unnerving and I made a decision right then — walking to Grand Central Station with the brand new blue-and-red umbrella my parents had bought me from one of the vendors who blossom on the street corners with every thunderstorm — that I would live there one day.
I did and it lived up to its reputation, both good and bad. The city my children will see is vastly different. It’s the first time I’ll see it through their eyes.
I still love it with a passion. Will they see what I did and become lifelong devotees too?
Stay tuned…
I am sure they will love it as much as you, how could they not? It’s such a great city! Have a fabulous time! Emma
Emma, thanks! I hope so. Although if they really love it, will they abandon London for NYC? It’s a tough call…
You should definitely take a walk on the High Line! It’s free and fabulous. And the Central Park carousel is a classic, even if your kids might not be exactly the target age. Have fun!
I cannot even believe I haven’t been on the High Line. Now that’s it’s been mentioned in an episode of Girls I’m wondering if it just isn’t totally passe, anyway, and I’m marking myself out as a total tourist if I seek it out.
I’d love up take my kids to New York and see it through a child’s eyes. Hope you have a brilliant time. Look forward to hearing about it (reading about it!)
Thanks, Sarah. Yes, I’m imagining they will give me a whole new perspective. Of course, if they pull out the childhood favourite of “I’m bored” I’ll just have to remind them that NYC is one of the most exciting cities in the world!
I can’t help you with any tips for NYC but I do know the feeling that comes from wanting to share favourite places with your children. We are off to Scotland this Easter, via Newcastle, so our son can be reminded of both his parents’ childhoods.
I think that’s such an important element: the idea that one’s parents really love someplace. Even visiting my Dad’s hometown as a child I remember being overawed by it, although it was a pretty mundane small Texas town. But this is where he was grew up. I’m hoping the kids approach NYC with the same enthusiasm that I did for places my parents took me.
it’s going to be awesome! my advice is not to overthink the kid angle–just take them to the places you love and they will love them too. i mean, how could they not?
I think you’re right. After all, one of the best things about the family holiday is doing it all together and hearing the stories behind everything. And boy do I have stories…
I did the same thing with my kids last year. Well not exactly the same. We took ours to Liverpool, which is clearly much less exciting than New York. But it was the first time I had ever been a proper tourist in the area I grew up in. It was both reassuringly familiar and deliciously new. And interestingly I am much fonder of it since then than I was before our visit. I’m envious of you. What a treat -to see an iconic city like New York through the eyes of your kids!
I’m really excited. Although I occasionally get a picture in my head of me dragging the children across the Brooklyn Bridge or through the Moma screaming, “Look at this! New York is iconic! You should be LOVING this!” while they complain about being bored.
How random, to click on this today (you’re on my blog roll: we met at the Kids Co tea, and meant to meet for coffee – wow, over a year ago!).
I didn’t realise how much we have in common: I’m also from NY, moved to London with my British husband, and, too, have never been on the HIgh Line! Whenever we fly to JFK, we’re pretty much heading straight out to the end of Long Island, to see friends & family, and swim. NY is too often just dashing thru on the way to see friends somewhere else.
But that’s summer. It will be wonderful to go in Spring, for Easter – show your kids. I remember my parents buying a camper trailer, when we lived on Long Island, to spend the summer travelling across America. I was 14, too old, too cool to be with my family – I wanted to go on a teen tour like ‘everyone else’. Even tho I ran into the coolest girls in the grade, on their tour, at Yellowstone Park, still, I wouldn’t have traded that summer with my family for the world.
Even if the complain – and they will – it will be a memory that will stay with them all their life.
Hope to see you sometime when you’re back.
Looking forward to your future blogs reporting back on this trip – as my older two – at 11 and 9 – would love to go and would be great to get some inspiration about what works and what doesn’t.
Finding outings that work for them as well as my four-year-old is probably going to be the really tricky part, though.
They are going to love it – how can they not? NYC is FULL of inspiration, excitement and like living in a movie for a week.
Have a great time and I wish i could try the High line too!
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