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Constant nagging, fighting siblings, endless Barney and Frozen songs and motion sickness are just some of the problems parents have to put up with.
Here are tips on how to make travelling with children a little easier:
General
- Bear your children in mind when choosing your destination and planning your trip. Make sure it is a place the whole family will enjoy.
- Let them know what to expect. Include the good and the bad. The good includes what they can look forward to seeing and doing on holiday and the bad includes the long drives and long waits at the airport.
- Plan ahead and don’t try to fit too much into every day of your holiday. This will only stress you out if you are unable to accomplish everything on your list.
- Ensure that you have the correct travel documentation when travelling to other countries. Bear in mind the new requirements from Home Affairs that require children to travel with unabridged birth certificates from 1 October 2014.
- Ensure that your entire family takes the required and recommended vaccinations for the destination you are travelling to. These include malaria, yellow fever and meningitis. Getting sick on holiday is no fun at all.
- If possible, travel at night. That way, the children are likely to sleep through the journey.
- Ensure that you have a ready supply of snacks to keep them from getting hungry and irritable. Try to avoid the sugary snacks though, as you don’t want them running up and down plane aisles or jumping in the car on a sugar-high.
- Carry motion sickness medication if your children suffer from it (like mine do) and keep it in a First Aid bag. Also, keep some Calpol or Panado, just in case.
- For small children, do take a stroller with. You don’t want to be carrying them every time they get tired, which will be often. And when they’re not in it, you can use it for your bags or your shopping.
- Always carry wet wipes and at least one extra outfit for emergencies or accidents.
- Ensure that you have a ready supply of age-appropriate toys to keep them from getting bored. Don’t give it to them all at once but rather give one every hour or so. Download travel games on their tablets (for older kids) before you set off.
- Give your children cheap cameras or even your mobile phone to take photos with. You’ll be amazed at what they see from their point of view. It will also help to keep them from getting bored.
- Encourage older children to keep a travel journal. This will keep them busy and help them to record their memories for posterity. They can collect ticket stubs, postcards, mini-maps and other travel memorabilia to show friends and family once back home.
- Use a child locator instead of leashes. They are much more child –friendly. You strap a small unit onto your child’s belt or shoe and keep the transmitter. If they go out of sight, just set off the alarm and follow the sound. Some alarms automatically go off if children go out of the required distance.
Air Travel
- Choose a child-friendly airline if possible. They usually give kids welcome packs and cater for kiddies meals. My children always look forward to special treatment for kids. And if they have their own TV on the plane they can keep themselves busy for hours with all the new movies and games they discover on it.
- When travelling with babies on airplanes, find out beforehand if they have a bassinet seat and be sure to book it. When my son was a baby, I once had to carry him the whole time on a six-hour flight because I didn’t book the bassinet early enough.
- If you are a premium member of an airline's frequent-flyer club, you may be able to use a private departure lounge. Many credit cards also offer this value-added benefit. If you're not a member, you may be able to buy a day pass. You will have access to comfortable chairs, free drinks and snacks, TVs and good toilet facilities which really help when travelling with children.
- Check in online before you go to the airport. This way you don’t have to queue and you can book your preferred seats beforehand and ensure that your family sits together.
- You can request 'meet and assist' services when booking your flight if you'd like to be met at check-in and helped with your children and bags to the plane.
- Carry pacifiers for babies and chewing gum for older children to avoid earache when taking off and landing.
Driving
- Always use car seats whenever driving with children, until they are old enough. Then ensure that they use booster seats or seatbelts, depending on their age.
- Have extra rear-view mirrors fitted into your car and facing the back seats to allow you to keep an eye on the children without having to turn around.
- Portable/Car DVD players are great at keeping children busy for hours. For us, it was one of the best travel investments ever. But just make sure that you give them earphones or else you’ll be listening to “Let it go” (from Disney’s Frozen) for hours on end.
- Encourage them to play car games, such as “I spy with my little eye” and “Rock, paper, scissors” when they eventually get tired of their DVD’s.
- Stop often to allow the children to stretch their legs and take bathroom breaks. Service stations with play areas are a treat to look forward to.
Relax and enjoy your holiday. Bon Voyage.
Follow Sara Essop on her blog, In Africa and beyond. You can also like her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.
Like Women24 on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Here are tips on how to make travelling with children a little easier:
General
- Bear your children in mind when choosing your destination and planning your trip. Make sure it is a place the whole family will enjoy.
- Let them know what to expect. Include the good and the bad. The good includes what they can look forward to seeing and doing on holiday and the bad includes the long drives and long waits at the airport.
- Plan ahead and don’t try to fit too much into every day of your holiday. This will only stress you out if you are unable to accomplish everything on your list.
- Ensure that you have the correct travel documentation when travelling to other countries. Bear in mind the new requirements from Home Affairs that require children to travel with unabridged birth certificates from 1 October 2014.
- Ensure that your entire family takes the required and recommended vaccinations for the destination you are travelling to. These include malaria, yellow fever and meningitis. Getting sick on holiday is no fun at all.
- If possible, travel at night. That way, the children are likely to sleep through the journey.
- Ensure that you have a ready supply of snacks to keep them from getting hungry and irritable. Try to avoid the sugary snacks though, as you don’t want them running up and down plane aisles or jumping in the car on a sugar-high.
- Carry motion sickness medication if your children suffer from it (like mine do) and keep it in a First Aid bag. Also, keep some Calpol or Panado, just in case.
- For small children, do take a stroller with. You don’t want to be carrying them every time they get tired, which will be often. And when they’re not in it, you can use it for your bags or your shopping.
- Always carry wet wipes and at least one extra outfit for emergencies or accidents.
- Ensure that you have a ready supply of age-appropriate toys to keep them from getting bored. Don’t give it to them all at once but rather give one every hour or so. Download travel games on their tablets (for older kids) before you set off.
- Give your children cheap cameras or even your mobile phone to take photos with. You’ll be amazed at what they see from their point of view. It will also help to keep them from getting bored.
- Encourage older children to keep a travel journal. This will keep them busy and help them to record their memories for posterity. They can collect ticket stubs, postcards, mini-maps and other travel memorabilia to show friends and family once back home.
- Use a child locator instead of leashes. They are much more child –friendly. You strap a small unit onto your child’s belt or shoe and keep the transmitter. If they go out of sight, just set off the alarm and follow the sound. Some alarms automatically go off if children go out of the required distance.
Air Travel
- Choose a child-friendly airline if possible. They usually give kids welcome packs and cater for kiddies meals. My children always look forward to special treatment for kids. And if they have their own TV on the plane they can keep themselves busy for hours with all the new movies and games they discover on it.
- When travelling with babies on airplanes, find out beforehand if they have a bassinet seat and be sure to book it. When my son was a baby, I once had to carry him the whole time on a six-hour flight because I didn’t book the bassinet early enough.
- If you are a premium member of an airline's frequent-flyer club, you may be able to use a private departure lounge. Many credit cards also offer this value-added benefit. If you're not a member, you may be able to buy a day pass. You will have access to comfortable chairs, free drinks and snacks, TVs and good toilet facilities which really help when travelling with children.
- Check in online before you go to the airport. This way you don’t have to queue and you can book your preferred seats beforehand and ensure that your family sits together.
- You can request 'meet and assist' services when booking your flight if you'd like to be met at check-in and helped with your children and bags to the plane.
- Carry pacifiers for babies and chewing gum for older children to avoid earache when taking off and landing.
Driving
- Always use car seats whenever driving with children, until they are old enough. Then ensure that they use booster seats or seatbelts, depending on their age.
- Have extra rear-view mirrors fitted into your car and facing the back seats to allow you to keep an eye on the children without having to turn around.
- Portable/Car DVD players are great at keeping children busy for hours. For us, it was one of the best travel investments ever. But just make sure that you give them earphones or else you’ll be listening to “Let it go” (from Disney’s Frozen) for hours on end.
- Encourage them to play car games, such as “I spy with my little eye” and “Rock, paper, scissors” when they eventually get tired of their DVD’s.
- Stop often to allow the children to stretch their legs and take bathroom breaks. Service stations with play areas are a treat to look forward to.
Relax and enjoy your holiday. Bon Voyage.
Follow Sara Essop on her blog, In Africa and beyond. You can also like her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.
Like Women24 on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
