Travel with Little Ones

In our resent trip to Hong Kong, we experienced flight delays, gate changes, and even being bused out to the middle of the runway to board the plane (which seemed strange to us in an airport the size of HK).  But nothing rivaled seeing two elderly ladies get into a fight while on the runway. The screaming match quickly escalated right before take off. The fight began to get physical and grew to include other passengers from the senior citizen tour group. The instigators had to be restrained and after more delays, our plane was finally able to take off. 

As Philip and I laughed over the sight and tried to debrief what on earth had just happened, we started talking about traveling. As singles and young marrieds, we LOVED to travel. The excitement of the unexpected was fun. However, when little people get thrown into the mix, the fun level drops dramatically. The thrill of the unexpected somehow turns into the dread of the unknown. We still love to travel and visit new places, but the getting there can be rough.

Despite the problems, Bella was a fantastic traveler on the HK trip! But thats the interesting part, when the two unknown variables (travel and little people) collide, it is impossible to predict how things will go. Our loooong flight to China was one of our better travel experiences, where a short seemingly simple flight from Virginia to Ohio was one of the biggest travel nightmares I can recall. As we raced through the airport, I had Bella on one hip and a trash can for throwing up in the other. Philip followed behind as a pack mule, miraculously carrying everything we owned. The airline staff was rude, baggage was a terrible (meaning they lost our luggage [twice]), ... I could go on and on with the details of that disaster. 

Before our big flight to China, I asked other mom's if they had advice for the long flight with little ones. They basically said, "Prepare to be miserable." There is definitely some truth to this! Traveling with little ones is hard regardless of what you do. But we have found that attitude plays a HUGE role. Our family has started saying, "We are going to have a bad day, happily together." That just reminds us that we are on the same team and that no matter how bad things are we choose to be happy or mad. Philip and I have found that Bella responds and replicates so much of our attitudes. Even baby Emma in my tummy is more cooperative when I am calm. :) We certainly have not mastered this, but its what we strive for.

The second thing people always joke about is Benadryl.  We personally haven't tried this one. We do give Bella a dose of Tylenol right before we board. Flights do bother her ears and this seems to help. Our prescription for a good travel day:  A dose of Tylenol for Bella, a couple shots of understanding for Daddy, and for Mommy probably best to hook up a running IV of patience. 

Almost always our fatal flaw in traveling is not enough sleep. We can't control it when Bella keeps us up the night before, which happens often before a trip. But when we leave too much to be done the night before or yes even the morning of the trip, no one sleeps well. It keeps us awake and it unnerves Bella. Being tired aggravates my morning sickness. It makes everyone grumpy.

Now that all that 'attitude' stuff is out of the way, we have found a few practical trips for traveling with little people. We discovered most of these the hard way. I hope that they are helpful and save someone else the pain we went through.

Another big mistake we made on our long trip was bring too many carry ons. Lets face it, luggage is expensive now days. I was determined to get every bit of free stuff on that plane as possible (which for us meant 3 carry-ons, 2 back packs, a diaper bag and stroller). It is not worth it. If I could do it again, we would have paid for an extra bag and walked onto the plane with arms to spare. We can only carry so much, and it is so much harder to chase Bella when you look like a Sherpa. 

Even with one bag, Bella can be a handful.

The next thing I would suggest is to look for a cart. It is almost always worth the time to search for one. When traveling, internationally carts are usually free. However, you do have to leave them behind and then find another one each time you go through customs, immigration, security, ect. 

Also, be sure to ask for arrival and departure cards on the plane so that you don't have to stand in the crowded airport filling these out. We have found that airports in Asia are a lot more accommodating to families than airports in America. Sometimes, security checkpoints will have a family line with almost no wait. The signs can be easy to miss in the midst of chaos and there isn't always someone there to tell you about it - so its something to look for. Also, in the long customs line, sometimes workers will allow families with young people to bypass the line and enter the "US Diplomat" lane. We've experienced this pretty consistently by being sympathetic and overwhelmed as we pass by airport workers.

Ask at the information desk at the airport if they have a play area for children. We have found that these are more common at international airports, but they don't always have signs and are not easy to find, so you may need to ask. This is the wonderful playground in the HK airport. Just how I like it. A big carpeted space for running. No bulky things for her climb and fall off. No little toys for sharing germs or choking.

If there aren't playgrounds, we usually try to find a less crowded area for her to walk or run around. Sometimes we can even find an unpopulated moving sidewalk. She loves to try to walk backwards like a treadmill.

I have to be particularly conscious of this one. Waiting to board our last flight, Bella began to line up our bottled drinks and bowl them over. My initial reaction was,"No! Bella" But after some consideration, I realized why not?  We try to be consistent in our parenting, traveling or not. We don't allow disobedient, bad behavior. But if she is doing something that is not hurting anyone, destroying anything expensive, or forming a bad habit or pattern of behavior. Why not?  Go for it! Bowl those drinks. Although, in hind sight, I would have remembered to tell Daddy about Bella's game so that his soda didn't explode on his shirt when he came back from the bathroom. (whoops. my fault).

This one seems a bit obvious, but I feel like it needs to be included to complete the thought. We have found it so helpful to bring special snacks (we have a very food motivated child) and a couple new toys to keep her entertained on the plane.

Last but not least, one thing that makes a huge difference is to try and ignore the pressure to have a perfectly well behaved child (even though this is really hard). Especially on a long flight, there are going to be moments of crying and moments of loud playing. That pressure makes everyone feel stressed and does not help.