When you have young kids, you’ll constantly be worried about how joyful your trip is supposed to be, especially at holiday time. Flying with a toddler can turn into a nightmare and instantly feel like the worst hours of motherhood. But it is possible to enjoy your journey with a toddler. All it takes is a little bit of planning and some careful packing.
On a three-hour journey, you should have at least ten activities for entertaining your kids. During the first and last fifteen minutes they can be looking out the window to watch the plane taking off and landing. Pack their favorite story books, legos, some drawing materials, kid-friendly magazines, toys, and tasty snacks. You might not need all of them, especially if they fall asleep, but it’s better to have too much entertainment than not enough.
These days, gadgets are our everything. We have variety of different tablets, players, pocket computers and smartphones nowadays, and it won’t be a problem to invest in one of them for your flight. Of course a DVD player means keeping a set of DVDs with you, so it would be more comfortable to have a small tablet where you can download your kids’ favorite cartoons, movies, or TV shows, which will offer your children some distraction during the flight and allow you to get some rest too.
You can think about some small toys to wrap up, and give your child a gift every 30-40 minutes for being good. The toys should not be expensive; you can even wrap your kid’s small forgotten old toys or some candy. You can also wrap some of the activities prepared for the flight, like snacks, sweets, and legos.
Before your trip, download some simple apps and games to your smartphone or tablet. It’s good if the games are made for your kids’ age and development. Usually these games are very easy and might be interesting for parents as well. Choose some relaxing games, such as popping bubbles.
Kids are usually too small to watch out of the window, so they might need a pillow to sit on for that purpose. Your older kids can sleep with a pillow as well.
If you want your kids to stay occupied longer, choose foods which take longer to eat, such as raisins, strawberries, or grapes. Give them healthy, tasty food. But keep in mind that too much sugar gives your kids extra energy and they might not want to stay in their seats anymore!