One Dad, a 0-Year-Old and a 3-Year-Old at Meijo Park: A Field Test
Saturday morning, my wife handed down a mission: "Two hours is plenty. Just take both of them out somewhere."
A 0-year-old and a 3-year-old. Available forces: one father.
The destination picked itself. For families with two small kids in Kita Ward, there is really only one ancestral home: Meijo Park.
Why Meijo Park?
Big, flat, free. It has all three.
By subway it's right by Meijo-koen Station on the Meijo Line. Our formation was stroller plus one 3-year-old on foot, and we got from the parking lot to the playground area without any trouble.
What do you do about diapers and formula?
On the north side of the park there's a facility called tonarino, which has a nursing room and a diaper-changing table.
One caveat. The private nursing booths are, fundamentally, set up for moms. If you're a dad on your own, the changing table is fair game, but for formula I'd recommend bringing hot water in a thermos. Far more reliable than hunting for some on site in a panic.
How far can you get with a stroller?
The park paths are wide with very few steps — plenty of room to push a stroller and hold a 3-year-old's hand at the same time.
The 3-year-old got sucked into the big colorful play structure; the 0-year-old waited in the stroller in the shade. The father did neck exercises, looking back and forth between them.
[My take] Two hours is the golden line
Past the two-hour mark, the 0-year-old's bottle and the 3-year-old's "carry me" arrive simultaneously.
That's what stretched our departure by an extra 30 minutes, and it's why I heard "one more time, the slide" three times on the walk back to the parking lot.
Wrapping up
Meijo Park holds up under solo-dad operation.
Also, both of them fell asleep in the car on the way home. The part where you have to carry them into the house turned out to be the hardest leg of the whole trip — but that's a post for another day.
