Traveling with Kids

As the holidays approach, many of us will be traveling with kids.  Since my family of origin and my family-in-law live 1400 miles apart, we've logged lots of travel miles with kids in the past nine years, both by car and airplane.  So I thought I'd write a blog post with some tips!

General Tips:

• Be prepared but be flexible - this is the overriding mantra of the trip.  Most of this blog will go over the "be prepared" part, but even if you plan for every last contingency you can think of, something unexpected will come up.  So get ready as much as you can, and then be flexible as surprises come up.  
• Show enthusiasm - If parents are psyched about the vacation, even the traveling part, kids will often follow suit.  
• Make packing lists - Gone are the days of throwing things in a backpack 10 minutes before you leave.  I make lists for medical, hygeine, entertainment, clothes, and food.  If you happen to be a medically complex family, triple check both the list and the packing of the medically necessary things  (But you already knew that!).  
• Everything you can buy at your destination conveniently, do that.  For things like diapers and groceries, we just bring what will get us through the trip (and a teeny bit extra in case of delay).  I've started using Walmart Online grocery ordering for trips back to Nebraska and it's amazing.  Especially for my very picky kid, there's no more driving to multiple grocery stores looking for the exact items he needs, and no more of my parents worrying whether they got the exact right things that will work for my family - they can be reserved ahead of time.
• Bring a couple gallon sized plastic bags - This can come in handy for so many things:  motion sickness barf bag; storage of smelly fruit peels; storage of a dirty diaper / outfit - just to name a few.  (Hope you're not eating while you read this!)  
• Prepare for sickness - Someone in my family always gets sick when we travel.  Like clockwork.  So part of my standard packing list is thermometer and Ibuprofen.  We have one kid who often gets motion sick, so I bring a med for that.  We have 2 kids with breathing issues, so we bring Albuterol.  And then, of course, whatever meds kids regularly take.  It's also a good idea to know where the nearest / best urgent care and hospital is at your destination.
• Have a backup plan besides electronics.  I think traveling is an *excellent* time to let screen time rules go out the window and let your kids go crazy on their devices, but we have had multiple occasions where the device runs out of batteries or just stops working and meanwhile you're in big city traffic or out in the middle of nowhere for several hours - if you have some books or toys or drawing materials available, this will help the kids deal.  (Also, given enough time, kids actually do get bored of devices, so your backups will also be useful for this.)
• Take every opportunity to use bathrooms - Every gas station.  Every airport layover. And if kids are very recently potty trained, I usually have them travel in a diaper.   
• Night travel - this can work pretty well with young kids if adults are up for it.  But you run the risk that kids won't sleep well, and you have the certainty that one or both adults will barely sleep, which can result in some jet lagged feeling wasted days at the start of the trip - we've done this before, but now we generally avoid it.  #old

Airplane Specific Tips:

• Know the rules - children under 2 fly for free but you need to call ahead to tell the airline and you need to bring a copy of their birth certificate; strollers and car seats usually check for free and don't count against your luggage limit; if you bring stroller to the gate, it will need to be gate checked; everything has to be broken down and taken apart to get through security, so have a plan for that if you're traveling alone.  (You might want to put pre-walking babies in a baby carrier for just this reason, or bring one in addition to the stroller if you're the only adult.)
• Bring Clorox wipes - Use them on the seat belts, trays, and hand rests.  I'm not a germaphobe, but  this practice has cut our sickness-right-after-flying rate in half.  
• Car seat rack - Convertible car seats are a huge pain when traveling, but if you buy a handy dandy car seat roller (pictured below), they can serve as a stroller in the airport and an easy way to haul your big old car seat around when you're also trying to carry other luggage and hold other kids' hands.  



Convertible car seat roller

• Drinks - I don't bring any kind of drinks for kids on airplanes - drinks can't go through security, they spill all over backpacks, they add weight and bulk to the ton of other stuff you're bringing.  It makes it a treat when the stewardess brings a juice, and it limits the need for bathroom.  You can get them nice and re-hydrated the next day :).
• Food - I do bring TONS of snacks, though, as this serves as both an activity to kill time and a way to stave off grumpiness.  (This is a good time to be somewhat generous with whatever your family considers to be "treats" because this will keep your kids happy, but be careful not to go too crazy with outside-the-norm treats because you don't want to bring on a sick stomach.)
• Infants - Plan to try to feed them during take off and landing - this will help with calm and ear pressure.  
• 1-2 year olds - This is the hardest time to do airplane travel.  If possible, let them run around a bunch before you get on the plane, and let them run around more at the layover.  Bring rotating snacks.  Let them tear up the Sky Mall magazine.  Whatever it takes.
• Remember that even if it goes horribly, it will all be over in a couple hours :).

Car Specific:

• Stops - Plan for (way!) more and longer stops that you would need with adults, and try to include bathrooms and an opportunity to run around every time.  If you can have kids eat meals in the car, that helps with time.
• Car entertainment - The Dollar Store has an excellent selection of old school car games, such as Road Bingo and Etch-a-Sketch.  We also use the Alphabet game and Interview as regular stand-bys.  
• Rotating entertainment - Make bags of the following, and rotate every 30-60 minutes:  food, small bags of toys, drawing materials, and books.  Also, use music and audio books in the mix, and gazing out the window as much as they can tolerate (you might be surprised).  
• Per day limits - If you're going to be driving for more than a day, try to limit drive time to 8 hours per day or less, and try to get a reasonably early start on the day, so that you have plenty of time for stops, and everyone has some downtime when you get to your stopping point. If you can find a motel with a pool and continental breakfast, these will both be hugely helpful with kids.  

When you Get there:

• If you're not already staying with family or friends, I would strongly consider a VRBO.  It helps so much to have a kitchen to prepare food and common space for the kids to play, and to not to have to worry about noise (either the noise you're making early in the morning, or others are making late at night).  
• No matter what you're doing, plan some downtime each day at your home base.
• Having a pool or green space available nearby helps a ton.
• Food - Try to do some meals not in restaurants, and have snacks available all the time.  This will help picky eater kids, but it will also help with things like budget and adults' sanity.  

Some final words of encouragement:

Travel with kids gets easier the more you do it!  It is excellent family bonding and provides great memories.  There will be some whining and sibling fights and boredom - wasn't this true for you growing up?  But it doesn't take away from the positive overall experience of having concentrated family togetherness and experiencing new things together.  Happy traveling!