Travelling can be stressful. Between booking flights, planning routes, packing your bags and/or your car, and organizing your accommodation, there is a lot that you need to take care of. This stress only increases when travelling with a young family.
Not only do you need to think about your needs, but those of your little ones too. In some cases, this often causes parents to put off the trips that they’ve been dreaming of. Well, pack your bags and start drawing up your itineraries because here are our travel tips for young families.
1. Pre-Plan Travel Entertainment
If you have a long journey as part of your holiday, you need to consider entertainment. Unlike at home, you won’t have space or access to all of your children’s toys and belongings.
So, start by charging all of your devices in advance, and asking your children to select a few important items. Next, have some great free kids cartoons ready to go on your tablet or phone.
Make sure that you back all headphones, books, and toys that your children have selected.
2. Set Expectations
Travelling is very exciting for kids – especially when it’s their first time. In all the excitement, kids can forget how to behave properly. Before heading off, sit your children down and have a quick chat about what you expect of them.
We don’t recommend bribing them to behave, but if you think it will help, keep this tactic in your back pocket.
3. Empower your Children
Giving your children something to do can help to keep them occupied. For example, giving them a small backpack and explaining how important it is that they carry it can give them a sense of responsibility. If you want to take it a step further, you could even give them fake tickets and explain that they need to hold onto them.
Plus, if they’re weighed down by a bag, it will make it harder for them to run off!
4. Bring Back-up
Holidays are great, but you never truly get a day off as a parent if your children are nearby. If you need some downtime, try to book a holiday that offers a creche or child care service. This way, you can relax on your trip while your kids are being taken care of.
If this isn’t an option, you can always bring in the big guns. Grandparents love any chance to hang out with their grandkids, so why not invite them on holiday with you? They will be able to keep an eye on your little ones day or night so you and your partner can get some much needed alone time.
5. Minimise Sugar en-route
What tends to happen when kids have sugar? They bounce off the wall. At home, this is manageable. When you’re on a plane or in a car, this problem becomes more difficult to manage.
We recommend minimizing sugar as much as possible when in transit to help your children relax and stay settled.
