This is the time of year, when families load up into cars, RVs, and planes and head out on a big family adventure. My husband and I will be taking our kids on not one, but two plane trips in the very near future. Traveling with kids can cause a lot of anxiety for parents, but I’ve found that a little preparation can go a long way, and so here are my tips for traveling with kids.
- Prepare Your Child for the Trip: Assuming that your child is old enough to understand, it’s a really good idea to have a chat with your child about the trip, and how you’ll be traveling. If you’re going on a long car ride, let your child know. If you’re going to fly on a plane, a trip to the airport ahead of time is a nice idea. It lets your child take a look at the planes and see how busy an airport can be. If your child is particularly nervous about flying, there are a lot of children’s books on flying that you may want to check out from your local library to help soothe nerves.
- Get Your Child Involved in the Packing: Let your preschool age and older children select some special toys and books that they just can’t be without. If your kids are anything like mine, they will try to tell you they will need every toy they own. To avoid this battle, I give my son a small bag and let him fill it up with his special books and toys. Once that bag is full. He’s reached the limit of what he can take.
- Stock up with new toys and books: A new toy will almost always keep your children occupied for much longer than an old familiar one. Many people will tell you to go to the dollar store to stock up and while that’s an alright idea, I have found that our local dollar store sells such cheap toys, they barely last 30 minutes. I also don’t like that the dollar store toys often have small flimsy pieces that fall off easily and are appealing for my young daughter to pop into her mouth. I prefer picking up toys from the local thrift shop or less expensive toys from the toy store. Hint: Don’t hand your kids the entire bag of new toys/books all at once. If you give each child one new toy at a time, it will help stretch out the novelty.
- Pack Snacks and/or Drinks: Hint: Don’t forget that if you’re traveling by air, liquids are strictly limited. My kids don’t seem to be able to last more than an hour without needing a little nibble of something. Plan for the munchies and avoid the melt-downs by packing saltines, goldfish crackers, granola bars, trail mix, etc.
For Car Travel:
- Stock up on DVDs: I highly recommend investing in a portable DVD player that has separate screens that can hook onto the back of a seat. If you have more than one child, it’s a good idea to get a DVD player that comes with two separate screens. You can often stock up on DVDs from thrift shops, and DVD compilations of your children’s favourite television shows are available in bargain bins of many big box or toy stores).
- Plan for Down-time While on the Road: As most parents know, kids need to get out and run around from time-to-time. Pop a frisbee or a soccer ball into the car so the kids can get their sillies out at a park or rest-stop before piling back into the car for another few hours.
- Put a Trash Bag in the Car: It’s amazing the amount of garbage that accumulates on a road trip. Save yourself a head-ache and put a trash bag in the car. I found hooking it onto the centre console and resting it on the floor of the back-seat right between both kids, is the prime spot for trash collection.
I’m sure there are many more tips for traveling with kids! What are your tips?
Photo Credit: Caribb on Flickr
