Tips For Travel With Children

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In this blog I’m going to be giving you some amazing tips for when you travel with your children, and specifically in this post, focusing on the journey itself. I’m going to give you the three best things that you can think about when it comes to traveling with children.

The three things that I want to share with you to make that journey and traveling with children a lot less stressful.

Number one, entertainment. It seems obvious, but actually the entertainment that your little one’s going to be most entertained by is going to vary at every age. What entertains a younger baby toddler age is going to be very different to a four, five, six, seven year old. It’s going to change, it’s going to evolve. What you can have for entertainment is going to vary depending on the form of travel, the form of transport. Are you on an airplane, a car, a coach, a train a ferry? The ability to move around might be different. Whether they can use wifi screens or whether they need to have books. What forms of entertainment are going to be appropriate for the journey. Consider that, what’s going to be appropriate for the form of transport, and also for the age of the child.

Also, think about what could be new. Now, this applies at all ages. What could you whip out that’s brand new for the journey? For instance, for a toddler, could you get a little bunch of party bag type toys, brand new things that they’ve never seen before that you pop into a bag. Then, one by one, on the journey you’re like, “Oh, what’s this? Oh, what’s this? Because we all know that, despite the fact they may have their favorite toy, it’s the new one, it’s the different one, the thing they haven’t seen before, that’s the most exciting that’s going to captivate their attention and keep them content and entertained for a period of time. Being able to pull out a new unseen before thing is definitely going to be great and that can evolve at different ages.

For a child a bit older, it could be a new book to read or a magazine. Or, if you like listening to audio books, or even in the car, for instance, it could be that you get that new audio downloaded and onto the device, the headphones prepared, everything you need so that they can have that brand new audio and be excited and get into that as well. Newness is also a great thing to think about when it comes to the entertainment.

Think about where you’re going to be able to provide that entertainment. Do they have restricted movement? What format it should come in and how you can make it new and exciting and different?

Number two is food. Make sure you are equipped, no matter what form of transport you’re taking, with that journey, make sure that you are able to provide food and water because we all know, and we are like it a bit too as adults, but children in particular, they struggle with their mood and their emotions when they’re hungry, not hangry, and thirsty. Their hydration and their food is going to be really important. Just make sure you’re armed with that. Think ahead, plan ahead, and also plan for delays and unexpected situations where you may be stuck without food or water. Plan ahead and be equipped.

The last one, is that the sleep rules change. You’re not going to be, necessarily, letting them sleep at the same times as they normally would or in the same space. They may be sleeping in an airplane seat or a car seat for a period of time. They may sleep at a different time. Don’t worry about the nap schedule. Don’t worry so much about the routine that you normally have, because if you are in transit, when you’re traveling, you feel different. You might sleep on a plane during the day when you wouldn’t normally, because that motion lulls you off. It’s okay. It might actually prepare you for a bit of a deficit in your sleep when you arrive, or with the times zone. It really doesn’t matter. What I’m saying here is let down any stresses about meticulous rules with the sleep during the travel day. You can allow extra sleep. If it happens, don’t panic. Don’t worry so much if a nap doesn’t happen when it normally would, because it would probably be made up for another time.

The travel day is the travel day, so just make sure it’s comfortable and enjoy the ride. I hope these tips help you to have a better journey this season if you are getting away or traveling with your children.

In my next blog we will be honing in on Time Zones, in the meantime take care and sleep soundly.

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