Back in July, I took Luísa on a long journey to another state in Brazil to spend 10 days. We went 1.400 kilometers away from home. To get there and to come back we traveled for 12 + hours in each way.
It had been a while since we hadn´t gone on a long trip (almost a year), so I was a bit nervous thinking about how Luísa would handle it.
Well, it turned out that she loved it! And I loved to know that all our future trips will be like playing a game.
If you are postponing a trip (like I was) because you think you will have too much trouble on your way, go and plan everything now. Not only do kids have great fun on their way to the destination, but it´s a great opportunity to get them out of the routine, and learn new things.
Car, taxi, airplane, taxi, bus and another car drive
In our trip, we left home in the afternoon, took a car ride of two hours and stayed at a friend´s house until 3:30 am. Than we left for the airport and took a plane at 5 am. Our flight lasted two hours and we had to stay in another airport for another three and a half hours to take another flight of 40 minutes and then a taxi and then a bus on another two-hours ride! Uff, it was definitely long.
So we had to make this trip entertaining at all costs (otherwise it could turn into Luísa crying while I would try to make her behave).
If you are traveling at night, it can be good to put pajamas on your kid even on the airplane, to make it more cozy.
If your kid is too active (I mean normal) to sit still for a long time (which for them can be like 15 minutes), then you just have to be creative and follow the games the kid is into.
On airplanes, Luísa loves to interact with other people. She loves to run by the aisles as well (and I let her free until the flight attendant tells me to stop her). So I hope that nice people are sitting around us which usually happens, and these people give her some needed attention.
It´s really advisable that you bring a new toy (non electronic not to disturb the other passengers) to give to your child only when your imagination and resources to play are over (but even knowing this in advance can´t prevent you to forget this valuable item).
At the airport, I take her straight to the book store and we can stay there easily for over one or two hours checking out the kids´ section. Then we go for a snack and we go into the waiting room and look for other kids to play with. There are always other kids around.
Now that Luísa is 3 years old it´s so much easier to entertain her and to find playmates along the way, but if you are traveling with a toddler or a young baby, then you are practically the single playmate they have and it´s much more work, but do-able and worth it. I traveled with Luísa to Italy when shewas 1,5 years and we had to play along the way intensely.
It´s about making it all looks fun. Like once the airplane arrives, I start telling her how we need to look for our luggage and see who finds it first at the conveyor belt. And then I say that we need to find a taxi to go and get a big bus that is waiting just for us. Invite your kid to pay attention to all the steps of the way with these little games.
Making kids look after their toy or stuffed animal is a good idea and it also teaches them a little bit of responsibility (although at times Luísa just leaves hers behind and I can´t stop to teach the lesson at the time…).
On our way back there were more buses involved and a ferry boat. This was definitely something to mention a lot beforehand to make her excited. “We will take a boat!” She surely enjoyed it all. And then she appreciated arriving home to her dogs and toys, immediately talking about visiting her friend Vitor, who lives close to us.
Kids get so stimulated with trips. After you take one, you can´t think of not doing it again and again.
In a short period of time, they learn new things that would take them longer at home (see my “travelearning” post). Like waiting in line to get on the airplane or bus (patience), recognizing new boundaries (like being stopped from running into some forbidden area) and seeing people that simply look different (different ethnics).
How do you entertain your child when you are traveling? Have you been postponing a trip to avoid trouble?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this article! Thanks! When my husband and I can get some more passive income into our budget, we want to travel quite a bit. And of course, we’ll probably have our children with us most of the time…they’ll have to be content so that we can all enjoy our trip more.
The first time we took our son on an airplane, he was about two months old. Being able to nurse him was a MUST. The air pressure inside of an airplane cabin can cause babies’ ears to have pressure also and the sucking action with nursing helps unplug their ears. Their mothers milk also keeps them happy.
On that trip, we had him in a sling and he peed on me. I should have brought extra clothing for me to change into, haha.
I like your ideas and would like to add two more ideas to help when traveling with kids. You talked about the first one, but being to give your kids good food and drinks helps so much. I try to find healthy food at the airports and we bring food with us when we drive. Being fed helps control kids’ blood sugar, which helps them to be in a better mood too. Drinks are good and help keep them hydrated. Airplanes can get very dehydrating.
I think my second idea applies to kids as they get older… When I was little, my family and I lived in Germany and my parents LOVED to travel and take us places. One things that was so much fun was when they gave us souvenir money. They usually just gave us a little bit (there were 4 of us at the time). And it was so much fun to spend it. When we were at airports or went to stores, it helped the time to go by quickly if we were able to look for things to buy. My parents also let us pick out what we wanted.
On my list of past souvenirs: teeny-tiny Eiffel Tower, a pencil sharpener shaped like a slice of cake, a few BIG pencils, a tiny salt shaker (from Salzburg, Austria) and lots of chocolate. It was a blast!
Thanks a lot Beth, those are very nice suggestions. The nursing a baby is trully a must, I did it with Luísa on airplanes a few times when we traveled before too. Nice about bringing the food too. It doesn´t hurt to prepare a few snacks before traveling, although when we got caught by the Chilean federal police for carrying an apple was an expensive mistake for us…
Letting the older children explore with some pocket money sounds great too, very entertaining.
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