Setting out on holidays with kids can be a daunting prospect, especially for the first time. Hopefully these tips will help you to prepare for your holidays and make the actual time away more enjoyable.
Packing
Where appropriate, get your children involved in packing their own bags. This gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility. It also prepares them that they are going away somewhere different. They are not simply being picked up in one spot and put down in another strange spot. Packing bags also builds up the excitement of going away!
Flights
- If you have an overnight flight it is really helpful if the children sleep! Try keeping to their nighttime routine as close as possible. Put them in their pyjamas, read a story if that is what you usually do or let them read, and give them their favourite (small) teddy. If they sleep it not only makes the flight so much easier for you but will also give them more resilience to continue on with the journey once they wake up, hopefully avoiding more tantrums and grizzles than necessary.
- Have plenty of snacks for the kids and include some that take longer to eat. You don’t want to give your kids a sugar high (that presents whole other problems with behaviour) but I will give my daughter one lollipop as she takes so long to suck it. It will keep her quiet and happy for quite a while. Popcorn also takes longer. Take the snacks in zip lock bags to keep them tidy and you can reuse the bags throughout the holiday. More substantial snacks you could take include a sandwich, cheese and crackers and some fruits that don’t squash. Just be careful of quarantine rules if your children do not finish the snacks on the flight.
- Take a change of clothes in a zip lock bag. Even toilet trained children can have accidents, plus there can be spillages of food and drink. You don’t want them sitting in discomfort so get them to change and the zip lock bag will keep the wet and mess off the rest of the bag’s contents.
- Activity packs are also essential. Consideration needs to be given to both size and how easy bits will be to pick up when dropped off a tray table on the plane! I suggest a card game that you can play with them as well as some activities they can do independently, such as colouring in, reading, tablet or electronic game (with headphones), a kids puzzler book and a notepad and pen.
Waiting Around
There may be times when you have to wait in queues or you are waiting around to meet someone or waiting for a bus etc. My daughter gets bored very, very quickly in these situations! It is good to have a couple of games up your sleeve, games that don’t require any equipment. One of our favourites is Eye Spy, but there is also the alphabet game where you pick a topic, for example animals, and then you take it in turns to say an animal that starts with the next letter of the alphabet, starting with ‘A’. Rather than choosing a topic you can also choose to name something you can see starting with that letter. Other topics could include boys or girls names, countries, colours, the choices are endless.
Snacks
All children need snacks throughout the day to keep them feeling satisfied and happy. I suggest that as soon as you get to where you are going you head to the local supermarket. Stock up on plenty of snacks and to save money buy boxes of snacks that you can take back to your accommodation and divide up for the days ahead. This is where the zip lock bags will come in handy.
Manage Sleep
This is a vital point. I know that when you are on holidays it is tempting to stay up late and let the kids sleep in in the morning, however this is very disruptive. Not only do many kids not sleep in, but by changing the nighttime routine you are putting their circadian rhythm out of balance. Regular sleep helps in emotional regulation, so on holidays, without this, the children may find it harder to stay awake during the day, focus on the activities you are doing, and will be less able to manage their emotions in dealing with all the change and new surroundings so could become difficult to soothe and calm in times of distress, and they may display more tantrums. Obviously there is going to be the occasional night where you have to keep the children up longer, but just try not to make it an everyday occurrence.
These are some of the tips that I have found most helpful in the past and also feel will be the most helpful in our upcoming trip. If you have any further tips or tricks I would love to hear them – I am still learning too!
About the Author
Sally is a home organisation and budgeting expert with a passion for helping families take the stress out of everyday tasks by creating simple, efficient and cost-effective processes. Her strategies can result in more time and energy being available to spend time doing what you love. Sally is a quiet budgeting queen, home organisation specialist, wife, mother, animal-loving mathematician and so much more.
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