The thought of travelling with children often overwhelms many parents, the idea of sticking your child on a seat for 5+ hours can seem daunting, and I get that. It’s not the easiest thing to do with your children but with the right planning you can make the travelling process much easier for you all.
I’ve created a list of the things we do before EVERY trip.
1. Mentally prepare yourself! This may sound silly but I really think this is important, especially if your one the worry and stress over what MIGHT happen or what MIGHT go wrong. Kids will pick up on stress, if they see you being excited and looking for adventure then they will too. We do our best to make every part of travel fun. This starts from the weeks leading up to it!
2. Prepare the kids! Kids love to get excited, being able to look up where ever we’re going on the line and show our children is a fantastic resource and one that we use often to show our kids what we’re going to see, where we’re going etc. YouTube is amazing, we especially love Blippy, well when we say we – the kids. He is full of energy and education! He was even able to prepare Indiana what to expect on her first helicopter experience which we were expecting to freak her out.
3. Select your hand luggage wisely. There is nothing worse in an airport having lots of bits and bobs to carry along with children. You need all your attention on the kids so when packing your bag make sure to only pack the essentials of what you need on the plane. We always have one rucksack and the Trunki for the kids stuff. We always pack plenty of nappies wipes, change of clothes for both kids and lots of fruit. We always make sure the important bits like passports are in an easy access {to you, make sure it’s still safe} place. I would tell you where we keep ours, but if I do I’d have to kill you… 😉 over packaging is the worst and can become stressful quickly.
4. Packing the Trunki! Get the kids involved! They love to pack bags, and feel that sense of responsibility. We will always buy an activity book before we go, this is usually the Gruffalo sticker book for Indiana. I think buying them something new and stimulating is the most important thing, puzzles would also be great for older kids! Play doh is always a must too, you will be surprised at how my animal play doh skills have come on since travelling haha! You can also get these no mess colouring books now which are fantastic because a pen is always bound to drop on theirs or my clothes! If there is space we usually pack a teddy and a blanket for each of them, I like to bring this as it is very comforting for them as they are so used to have this is their beds every nights.
5. Goodie bags! These are my secret to a calm flight. So I get some sandwich bags, a few small toys from the party bag Isle in a superstore. Some sweets and biscuits that will keep well out of packaging, raisins is a good one, basically little goodies that your kids like. I wack these out in desperate times. Or I set little targets to keep the kids going. I’ll say to them something like ‘when the seatbelt light goes off you can have your first goodie bag’ it’s a great distraction and let’s them focus on something other than being bored. I usually pack enough for one an hour – if I can I save as many toys as possible to use for the flight back.
6. Don’t make life hard for yourself! Okay so Indiana has been potty trained for over a year now, but when we do long drives or sometimes on flights, we do pop some pull up pants on her. Very rarely does she need to use them but it prevents a big stress when your unable to use the toilet facilities! We have never had to worry about her being confused either 👍🏼
7. Look up the airport you are travelling to and from and the facilities they have for children. Often you’ll find a play area hidden down some corridor of an airport. They can be amazing if you’ve been delayed or if mumma wants to go off for a little shop whilst dad watches the kids! 😉 oh – if you ever travel to Asia, they airports there are fantastic for children! We were delayed 4 hours once, frozen was on repeat full of toys and games. The least stressful trip ever 🙌🏽
8. Fruit!!!! Fruit is our go to snack for the kids. If there is ever any space in our bags we usually fill them up with all kinds of fruit. {We make sure we cut the grapes up before the flight}. To be honest the food on a plane for children isn’t all that bad, that reminds me, ring your airline up before to prebook the children’s meal. As if it’s hard enough to figure out a child would need a child meal!
9. If you are conscious about the general public around you whilst on the flight I’ve seen many people create these sweet little goodie bags for passengers around you, they can contain ear plugs, a little snack and other little comforting bits. This will show other passengers you are aware and doing your best with the kids if things do get hectic. But also, please don’t stress, they are all adults, they have headphone, I’m sure they know how to block the sound out 😁
10. Once you’ve got everything organised, enjoy it! There is nothing worse than being to stressed and missing out on the wonder in our children’s eyes once they start to travel! Don’t forget to pack your cameras and document everything! Not only will you treasure these moments forever, your children will go on to show their children and possibly be inspired themselves!
The Adventurous Mum 