On Parenting At Mardi Gras

If you have recently moved to New Orleans and not yet experienced the joy that is Mardi Gras with kids, the season can be extremely overwhelming and intimidating at first. New Orleans Mom is here to help with all of our best advice for parenting during Mardi Gras. Take advantage of these 22 tips for Mardi Gras beginners, as well as advice from inside the parade route. And when the last parade rolls, we hope you stay a while and enjoy all New Orleans has to offer with kids.

On Parenting At Mardi Gras

With Mardi Gras fast approaching, I’ve found myself once again explaining to non New Orleanians how all of this works, especially as a parent.

A national twin group I’m in whose babies were all due in February once asked what everyone’s first birthday plans were. I explained our plans to have a party on the parade route, with cupcakes, fried chicken and balloons anchored to our ladder. I realized that people were probably thinking I’d be parking my children on Bourbon Street, caddy corner to the Hustler Club, all as I handed the girls a drumstick and some beads to dangle at the tourists. Show me your milk-makers, we’re tired of seeing mom’s!

It had occurred to me before, but not so much until recently, that we really are oddballs in New Orleans. For two weeks a year, we throw caution to the wind, which usually doesn’t go hand in hand with successful parenting. And yet, we manage to make it seem normal. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.

But really, things that are totally normal here in New Orleans would send others into a complete tizzy. 

We keep our kids up past their bedtime, on purpose, with thousands of strangers. All of that sleep training, undone for blinky beads? You bet. We also skip naps, no questions asked.

We allow them to subsist on cinnamon pastries and fast food for nearly two weeks straight. Popeye’s mashed potatoes totally count as real vegetables.

Koozies get pulled out of breast pump and diaper bags and no one bats an eye. We’re dedicated to our children … and keeping our beer cold.

Kids taste alcohol before they’re five. We like to pretend we’re European.

Balancing a baby on a hip, beer in hand, and successfully deflecting beads? Achievement unlocked.

Scaffolding and ladder balance are also master skills. Look kids, no hands!

Dance parties on the street with [drunken] strangers. Sure, honey, go do The Wobble. But stay where I can see you!

Bars are totally appropriate places for toddler bathroom breaks. 

BBar

Parents will readily hand their children over to friendly faced strangers. Where’d you go to high school? Ben Franklin? Yeah, you can hold my baby.

Snap-n-Pops. Come on, kids, time to hurl explosives at each other!

Moon Pies tossed from strange men on floats totally count as breakfast. Expired 2012? Pffft. Eat up!

Children make great beer retrievers. What? We don’t teach them how to open them … Yet.

Oh thank goodness, a port-a-potty in the back of a pickup truck. Go ahead, honey. Give the nice man the dollar. Don’t worry, I’ve got hand sanitizer.

Public urination is frowned upon. But if a kid’s gotta go, car tires and bushes are fair game.

Ok, so, yeah. Maybe we do parent a little differently a few weeks a year in New Orleans. Somehow it feels normal, and despite all of it seeming counter-intuitive to the unfamiliar, most of us turn out just fine. But really, can you imagine things any other way?

Lindsay
Lindsay is a native New Orleanian, displaced only by her years at Mississippi State, where she earned a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries and a minor in English. She came home shortly after Katrina, to work as a zookeeper and be a part of the rebuilding of her beloved city. She dragged her husband Drake, a Tennessee native, along with her. Their son Bennett joined the family in 2010, and in 2014 they welcomed identical twin girls, Genevieve and Kellen Clair. She now works full-time as an Environmental Scientist while working on her Master's and serving part-time as NOM’s resident Jill of All Trades. Powered by espresso, cake, and craft beer, her happy place is on a beach or in the woods. Need to identify a plant, tree, or animal? Lindsay’s a wealth of random knowledge. She loves to cook and sprinkle a little glitter on everything.

20 COMMENTS

  1. This is so true, and funny! 99% of the time I am primarily a mom with “me” on the back burner but I Mardi Gras I have the chance to perfectly blend those two aspects of my persona. I guess I does sound horrifying to some people, but I just stocked up on gummy fruit snacks, junky single serve cereal cups, single serve Mac and cheese cups, and Capri sun for Mardi Gras. I remember last st Patricks day my 3 year old’s favorite thing was getting to pee in a port o let in the back of a pickup truck!

  2. It’s how I do. 🙂

    Just keep the kids away from those clouds of slightly blue smoke that smell kind of funky and don’t take your kids to adult parades and then get upset at the parades.

    Everything else is gravy. 🙂

  3. You NAILED IT. “Parents will readily hand their children over to friendly faced strangers. Where’d you go to high school? Ben Franklin? Yeah, you can hold my baby.”

  4. Perfect…..Born and raised here and at 15, I was in charge of the blender because “my pina coladas were the best”. LOL!!! Now my 17 year old and 10 year old are old pros at parades. People who think that Mardi Gras is NOT a family event have only watched it on tv or on Bourbon Street. Thanks for this!!!

  5. Lindsey, One of Curtis’ friends that I am friends with as well since grade school had your blog about Mardi Gras posted . I didn’t know it was your blog until I read it. I grew up in New Orleans and we would go out on the Ave. ( St.Charles Ave ) for all of the parades and on Mardi Gras day we would go and set up in front of St. Charles Ave. Presbaterian Church for the whole day. I had the best time and things were a lot more simple then they are now, but Mardi Gras brings out the most fun in people. When my own kids were young, we went out of town for many Mardi Gras seasons and I feel like I robbed them of a New Orleans tradition. Going to a parade in Mandeville just does not hold a candle to a parade in New Orleans. Glad you are letting your precious children enjoy the real thing.

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