Traveling with kids

This is how you do it

I enjoy long car rides. Back when I was still living the life of a single girl, I would spend my Sundays cruising in my little Renault 5. Touring across the countryside, admiring the cute little towns I passed before heading back. Music on, pure bliss.

I also find flying to be somewhat of a party.  Being offline for a few hours, watching movies and occasionally dozing off.

But as soon as kids were added to the picture, it became an Olympic sport to survive the long car rides and flights unscathed. I’ve been spit on, peed on, cross-examined and spilled on. Luckily I’ve already collected a bunch of tips to ease the flight travels but just incase you see my on the high way emergency lane covered in grime with kooky hair; please have some sympathy.

An extra outfit

Not only for your kids, for you too. My friend H once flew to Australia with her baby and she hadn’t even been onboard the plane for an hour before his transatlantic spewing fest began. She had extra clothes for him, but had completely forgotten to bring a fresh set of her own. And that with 22 more flight hours to go… Another quick tip: bring a plastic bag to dump the dirty clothing.

DVD-recorders

These are my lifesavers. We bought three cute pink ones from Philips who can handle a tumble or two. You can either watch a DVD or plug in a memory stick. Each has its own headset so we can happily continue listening to Jamie Cullum. I tag them along to restaurants too. I find them to be a little too improper to use indoors but for an outside terrace they work fine. As long as the kids obediently dine along with one course (or attempt to) and afterwards I’ll leave them in a corner with a movie. And we’ll order a little dessert.

Managing expectations

The essence of time is a difficult one. My girls are very aware of how long it takes to drive to their grandparents and try to use that to calculate other trips. What could be a fun scheme is to draw out the route you’ll be traveling. Mark the well-known places you’ll be passing by so that they can check these off in their little travel booklet. And if you happen to be a horrible drawer, like me, then you can always just print out pictures of the different places and stick it in.

The John

Public toilets are sore on the eyes, so nasty. Occasionally it won’t be too bad but usually you wouldn’t even consider having your dog pee there. That’s why I always bring along a little bucket and an Evian bottle in my cargo. Pee, tip and rinse. Saves you way more time than going to one of those icky bathrooms you get charged for.

Water only

Sporadically here and there a drink might get spilled in the car, so I always give my kids water. Other than it being the best drink you can give them, it’s also less of a hassle incase it does spill since it won’t be sticky. For a little bit of variation I have either ‘bubbly’ water (Badoit) or still water (Evian).

Sweets for my sweet

This is obviously in terrible contrast to what I said above, but with a long flight or drive on the agenda I always drop by a candy store. Filling a bag per person (making sure of course that everyone has the same candy and the same amount to avoid bickering) and every now and then treat them to something savory.

One last tip

Make pit stops. Look for a large parking space with a little playground. Let them run around and hope and pray that they’ll be snoozing when you’re back in the car.

Happy Holidays!