Useful tips to make family travel with small children fun for all
Yes, you read that right. I know it sounds crazy and unrealistic, but traveling with small children can be fun. My Husband and I are definitely still learning how to be the best parents we can be. We started this journey clueless like all parents do. What we did know for sure was that our children would travel from a young age. Our firstborn was only 2 months the first time we took a 12 hour family road trip.
He slept most of the way there. When he did wake up, we fed, changed, and stretched him before getting back on the road. We probably took him on 3 road trips by the time he was one. He took his first flight when he was two and was a rock star everywhere we went. He was just giggly and interacting with everyone who would let him. He even made friends with a shop keeper in the Istanbul airport during our 14-hour layover from Switzerland.
There is now five of us. We still travel often - road trip and otherwise - and plan to do even more as they get older. Here is how we make it work for us.
We prepare everyone mentally way in advance.
As soon as my Husband and I decide that our family is taking a trip, we discuss it with our children. They are only 7, 4, and 2, but talking to them helps a lot. They get a chance to ask questions, think of things they might want to do, and generally be excited about the trip. From the moment we tell them until we actually leave, we know that at some point during the day, someone is going to bring up the trip. We make it a point to answer all of their questions the best way we know how. If we don’t have an answer, Google surely does.
The idea is that if you want children do to something well, you have to do it with them as often as possible. For our summer travels - road or air - we prepare them far in advance. They know where we are going and why, who we will see, how we will get there, and what we will do. They get to choose songs for our travel playlist. They select most of their outfits and think of what they might want to do. Giving them this information ahead of time is a great opportunity for all of us to figure out how we want to set up our collective experience.
For example, before our trip to Burundi, our 4 year old wanted to know how we will get there. When we told them we will fly, he wanted to know who flies the plane, how it gets from one country to another, if we will have a place to sit, etc. The questions were hilarious, but they were exactly what he needed to mentally prepare for the long journey. It worked, too. He flew quietly, sleeping most of the time and watching his tablet sometimes.
For our older son, the questions were a little deeper. What languages do his cousins speak?Are there orphan children? Are there homeless people on the streets? What kind of food will we eat? What relatives will we visit? All of this helped him to imagine his time there, and it was good because he did not have any problem adjusting once we arrived.
We go in knowing that children will be children.
If you have ever been around children, you know that at some point, they will cry for something or get tired and grumpy. Even I get tired and grumpy after too many sleepless nights. Going into every trip expecting them to lose it at some point helps us to make the best of our family vacation. It makes it easier for us to react kindly instead of losing it right along with them.
On top of mental prep and setting expectations, it’s really important to bring games and toys they enjoy. For this last trip, we took tablets because we were facing two long flights. They watched some of their favorites and played games for parts of the flight time. For our road trip to Canada last year, we did it all with just music, snacks, and stories.
We temporarily throw away some of our rules.
Soda anyone? Those who have been in our home know that soda and some of its snack friends are not welcome on our menu. Our babies have very limited screen time. And we pride ourselves on being able to eat healthy homemade meals most of the time.
For the sake of everyone’s sanity, some of these rules go out of the window when we travel. We found it especially challenging in Burundi to exist without giving them a Fanta at mealtime, so we let it be. Knowing that we were about to embark on a 14 hour journey, we bought each child a tablet for entertainment purposes. The two younger ones ended up not using them for long, but they were there in case everything else failed.
We set aside time for their activities.
Chances are, we will do a lot on every trip that is geared towards families with children. We are not hardcore planners who know every detail of each day’s activities, but we do know that we want at least some of the things we do to be fun for them. A pool day here. A playground afternoon another time. They leave knowing that we thought of them, too, which helps them look forward to the next trip.
It is a real fact that traveling with children is not vacation. It’s a family trip - still fun but not the same. You will be super exhausted at the end for sure, but that will not take away from the moments you shared and memories you create with your little ones. That is what they will treasure.
