Hello, fellow parents:
As I write this post on my phone, I’m sitting at the gate at Washington National, waiting out an indefinite delay. I might be agitated, but I feel content to sit and relax. It’s a matter of perspective and contrast.
I took this same trip a year ago this time, but last year, I brought all three kids with me so that Robbi could have a free week to catch up on work (and awful romantic comedies). The kids were pretty good, all told. But they were kids. Loud, wild, enthusiastic, creatures in constant motion.
As I sit here grateful not to be juggling three kids while waiting for a plane, I am already bracing for the next time it (inevitably) happens.
So here’s the topic for this week: what are your go-to kid travel tips and strategies? From games and toys to gear and techniques, what has worked? And, equally important, what has not?
This morning I’ll be content to consider your ideas in the abstract as no children scream, jump, and clamor at my feet.
Of course, if I am to be entirely honest, I miss them already.
In the abstract, of course.
I have no advice to offer. We have not taken our kids on a plane. We would not do that to a plane load of people. Our customary travel procedure consists of singing. Lots of incongruous singing. Both of my children sing at the top of their lungs in the back of the car. Different songs. Our youngest has recently discovered opera. Originally she just sang the word “Opera” as loud and as ear piercingly high as possible. Now her opera repertoire includes the line “Somebody stole-a my-a spaghetti.” Our oldest likes improv, so there is no guessing what she will sing about. Only another parent can possibly imagine what two small children singing their own tunes at the top of their lungs can sound like. They can do this all the way to Dover. And back. I’ve tried to get them to sing together or with me. This is unacceptable. I am neither proficient enough at opera, nor slick enough to improv correctly. When they aren’t singing, they might be content to play with our phones or their Leap Pads and give our ears a rest. But mostly, there is lots of singing.
We flew a two round trip flights with our daughter when when was under a year old, and she was a dream. So my hints are to travel when your darling child can still be calmed by a pacifier and is pre-verbal.
Ha ha, Stewart. Are you suggesting we have another baby????
IPad with 1 or 2 new apps and snacks.
Funny, Jessica – that is how I pacify Matthew. Except without the iPad.
We have found the iPad most useful on shortish trips, but we somehow tend to take terribly long ones more than we’d like (our 20+ hour journeys to and from Alaska, for example). So it occurs to me that I should recommend to anyone ELSE out there that if you happen to have a long-ish layover anywhere (3 hours or so) we have found that the little pop-up peapod travel tent (http://www.amazon.com/PeaPod-Travel-Bed-Cranberry-Kidco/dp/B00CCKC108) has been invaluable. It’s a super easy and light carry-on, and you just pop it out while you’re waiting. It’s fun for the kids to be in and they generally annoy your fellow disgruntled layoverees less than they would if they were climbing all over the place. It’s SO exciting to play in, though, that if you expect to get any sleep during your 12-hour layover in the baggage claim area of the Anchorage airport where you have to hang out with your dog, well forget it. That tent is so much fun that NO one gets any sleep.
Jodi: Thank you for sharing. That was very cathartic. Kind of like watching Greek tragedy.
Robbi must forget that when we gave Kato the iPod in the car, he promptly threw up. After stopping to clean it up, we convinced ourselves that the excessive vomiting had nothing to do with the iPod (Kato worked hard to convince us of this point) and gave him the iPod again. At which point, he promptly threw up again. Good times.
Jessica: Which apps? Which snacks?
Along the lines of Jodi’s singing therapy, we have a “bridge song” that we sing whenever we go over a bridge. It’s the Oscar Meyer Wiener song (which, if you did not know, has two parts, which we sing in rounds). For years, the kids have been fascinated when Robbi and I sing the bridge song, requesting such modifications as “Now sing it really fast!” or “Now sing it really slow.” Alden has just recently gotten old enough to sing with us. Generally speaking, the Bridge Song keeps kids occupied and happy for at least 20 minutes after we’ve crossed the bridge. All we have to do is travel routes with lots of bridges.