I’ve done very little traveling with children in my days. Most of my trips were either with friends or family where I was one of the oldest of the children but I was still young enough to miss all the minor details.
So I thought about it…what is it like traveling with children? I asked parents around me for their experiences.
I’ve had the privilege of chatting with several parents who are in transit or have taken a recent trip. I enjoyed the conversations because I saw the direct effects of these travel tips in my travels. What do you need to know before traveling with children?
Tell them you’re traveling so that they can be mentally prepared- A few people I talked to had different opinions on this part. The one thing they all agreed on is to not tell them too early. The negative effects of this range from them not sleeping the night before, to the constant questions to see if ‘today was the day they were going to travel’.
Be prepared to have lots of baggage they you will need to haul around in the airports/train station. Packing itself is a task, but trying to make sure you packed everything and in the right bags is a fulltime job in itself. The checked lagguage has quite a number of things but the carry-ons is where everything is in limbo for a couple of hours. Did you pack their favorite toy, the sleeping blanket, their pacifier, a change of clothes, the bedtime storybook, a specific snack they like (or two), earphones for them to watch their favorite show in silence? Are they in the right bag? Do I need labels for them?
Everyones day and night time routines have been interupted for at least a day or two so there will be some crankiness. On one 8hour flight my heart went out to a lady with a crying child. It being a night flight the child was clearly tired and needed a rest but a plane is no place for a good nights rest. Her young daughter cried and whined for the entirity of our transit and the tears only took leave when she had some form of entertainment. Needless to say she did not sleep and neither did the rest of us. The cabin crew did the best they could to accomodate mother and child at the entrance even providing extra blankets for them to lay down on near the main door (where there was a little extra room).
Unlike home where meals can be served at whatever time food /snacks were ready, the meals on planes are served at specific times. The menu is already set from months before and is not a la carte, as most of us would wish. This limitation makes it necessary for most parents to pack some extra snacks that cater to their children’s specific taste palate.
It’s hard enough traveling as an adult in a confined space, little or no leg room, sitting at a weird angle because the seats don’t fully recline and then to imagine the small bathroom cubicles. Imagine being a 5year old in these same confined spaces,when everything in your developmental milestones screams explore, move, learn!!
Queue our next travel challenge, tantrums. I’ve seen my fair share of tantrums in the supermarkets, restaurants and playgrounds, the ones that happen in school at drop-off time however take the cake for ground level tantrums. All these however, pale in comparison to the ones we’ve probably all witnessed when families travel through airport lounges or cabins. The internet has shown us good samaritans out there who take time to help parents in need. These people have been pictured carrying sleeping babies, rocking crying ones and even feeding a child while the parent attends to a second child.
A travel trick I’ve seen work for children of all ages is making an age appropriate activity bag. These might range from colouring books, sticker books, matching cards, to small puzzles. The same way we as adults need some sort of activity or music for the journey, children also need something to keep their minds off the constant motion.
Whatever your travel hack might be, don’t forget to have fun on your trip amd make memories every step of the way.
IS YOUR NET WORTH!
That Nicte' 