SOMEWHERE BETWEEN BALI AND “MOM, SERIOUSLY?
Seven travelers, a questionable accessory, and children who should know better than to tell Mom she won’t.
My first trip to Bali began with a perfectly reasonable idea: take six other people, three who officially qualify as special needs, and head off to a place 10,600 miles from home.
Aren’t we all special needs, really? My personal special needs include adventure and occasionally being left alone long enough to finish my coffee. Or wine on the more interesting days. (Usually not for breakfast.)
I created this crazy trip with ChatGPT, packed everybody up, and appointed myself the “important documents and carry-on bags for three” pack mule. That last part wasn’t an official appointment. When you’re Mom, the position tends to find you.
We spent two weeks in Bali, with a week in Seoul tacked on each end of the Bali journey, and the trip was amazing in every way. There must have been at least a thousand positive surprises. One of them was a cheap, paradise-floral-print fanny pack.
Before we left, my older kids mocked that bag heavily. I had purchased it as a discounted impulse buy, and they were certain I wouldn’t actually use it. It literally became the punch line whenever we discussed what Mom wouldn’t use.
Well. There’s an excellent way to make sure I use something.
Steely determination surfaced. The floral fanny pack was going to Bali. And that little bag earned its trip.
Passports. Airline tickets. Cash. Credit card. Phone. AirTag. Airbnb keys. All the things I needed to keep close while keeping up with my kids were finally in one small, hands-free place.
On my phone screen, I put a money-conversion cheat sheet so I could stop having a coronary every time someone told me something cost a million rupiah.
A MILLION.
Which, depending on the exchange rate, is roughly sixty dollars. My nervous system would have appreciated that information before hearing the word “million.”
Here’s something a little personal about me: one of my trauma responses to stress is losing things I need. The more urgently I need something, the more likely I am to have put it somewhere that made perfect sense three minutes ago and now appears to exist in another dimension.
Luckily, traveling to an unfamiliar island just to the left of Jules Verne’s mysterious island wasn’t stressful at all.
Okay, it was stressful to the core. My kids do not like change and the unknown, so I am constantly reorganizing OPSR (Other People’s Stress Responses). Taking time to help kids re-regulate is a better idea than matching their meltdown. But, for your information, it secretly stresses moms out.
So when an airport agent says, “Passports and tickets, please,” being able to smile and reach into my bag is a real improvement over frantically patting myself down like Barney Fife in an old Mayberry episode.
The little floral bag helped me stop freaking out about my stuff. I could pay attention to my kids. I could look around. I could actually enjoy the place I had traveled 10,600 miles to see.
Later, while clinging to the shoulders of my Gojek scooter-taxi driver, I developed an even deeper appreciation for a bag that buckles around me.
At that moment, both hands had other commitments.
Somewhere along the way, an idea started taking root. I was already working on pajama designs for Midnight Wave, so I was feeling creative. I was also still feeling the sting of my kids making fun of my extremely useful fanny pack.
But I would never tell them that. Luckily, they do not read my articles of confession.
Apparently, inspiration can arrive through beauty, necessity, or your children insulting your accessories.
I wanted all the usefulness of that little bag in something incredibly beautiful. Something I would be excited to wear. Something that could keep the essentials close and give me a little more freedom to enjoy whatever was happening around me.
So I designed the Bali Bag and gave my trusty travel companion a much-needed style upgrade.
With choices of leather, canvas, or water-repellent nylon, a print lining I personally designed, delicate nautical zipper toggles, and dedicated interior pockets, every detail gave me a chance to make something useful feel beautiful.
This isn’t your $18 fanny pack anymore. This is the luxury hands-free bag nobody mocks.
My children may consider that a challenge. Or maybe they will just be impressed and never acknowledge how right and wrong they were!
The first sample is expected to arrive from the manufacturer next week, and I cannot wait to hold it.
It began with a cheap floral fanny pack, a slightly outrageous family trip, and a mom who needed her hands back. Now I get to bring a little of that Bali dream to you.
And yes, kids. I used the bag. We will ALL use the bag. Thanks for the challenge.
Now I can find my keys even on the wacky days. And smile as I remember the beauty of Bali.
More stories and adventures from Midnight Wave are on the way.