A few months ago my younger sister announced her engagement. “Yay!” I thought. “Now we have a good excuse to go on a trip and visit everyone.” And since I like to plan ahead, I immediately started a packing list.
We flew last Thursday and the travel this year went much better than it did last year. Part of that is due to our children being a little older, although they are all four and under, but we also learned a lot through our mistakes last time. I’ll share some of the things we learned so that if you are planning a trip in the future you’ll have some ideas to make it less stressful to travel with young children.
When I told Andy I was writing a blog post about traveling with toddlers I asked him what he recommends based on our very recent experience.
“Traveling with toddlers?” He asked. “Number one: Don’t do it.”
He has a point. It’s never easy to keep going and taking care of everyone when you’ve lost a night of sleep and feel draggy with jet lag, but if travel you must, you might as well make it as easy as you can on yourself.
Let them help pack their own little backpack. If they are old enough to have their own ticket and seat, they are allowed a personal item. Helping decide what to take builds enthusiasm for the trip.
Take disposable snack containers. When you have snacks like animal crackers it’s nice to be able to portion it out to each child without dragging bowls along. We’ve found that sandwich ziplock bags work great to hold snacks and then throw away later.
Make sure you have something along for puke in case someone gets airsickness. I hope it never happens for you, but I’m case it does it’s awful if you don’t have anything to catch it in. Trust me. I was unprepared once.
Use bottles or sippy cups, even for older children. Picture it. The stewardess hands out juice and all is well until it gets knocked over by a wiggly toddler. Suddenly you not only have tears about the spilled juice but also a sticky mess on your hands. This time around we brought along baby bottles for everyone – even our four year old. Then you just dump the juice into the bottle and you don’t have to worry about spills, even if it drops on the floor multiple times. Plus all our children think drinking out of a bottle is a very fun thing to do.
Practice beforehand and mentally prepare your children for flying. Use the living room couch and pretend it’s the airplane. Walk the children through what they can expect while flying and the flight itself usually goes better.
Make it fun even if deep down you’re not excited at all! Even if you dread the trip try not to show it. Things go a lot more smoothly if the children view it as an adventure.
Take fun toys and activities – either buy new or put them away beforehand so they’re fresh for the trip.
Pack snacks and toys with care – avoid crumby or sticky snacks. Animal crackers or cheddar goldfish or pretzels work well.
Be active during layovers and use up all that extra energy. Even if they don’t sleep on the next flight they will at least be able to sit better.
Make wristbands with a parents name and phone number in case the child gets lost. We just use paper and scotch tape.
Keep track of your children by dressing them in bright, easy to spot clothing in case you get separated. Tell them your expectations for how to walk through the airport. For example, last year when Gabe was only three and we had our hands full with baby Oscar and luggage we told him that whenever we were walking in the airport we expected him to hold onto either the strap on the rolling carry on or else my skirt. This made it much easier to keep track of him and he didn’t fall behind.
Take a stroller for the airport. It’s super helpful with small children and luggage and you can leave it at the door of the airplane for free to get first thing when you get off.
Pack lightly and check all the luggage you can. When you need your hands for helping or holding small children you don’t want them full of bags. Backpacks also help keep your hands free.
I hope this makes your trip go more smoothly, and that you are able to arrive at your destination with all your sanity intact.
If you have tips and suggestions for flying, please leave them in the comments below. We have another 24 hour trip to get back home next week, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Happy flying!