Posted on 01/26/2018
Do you dread travelling with kids? Tsh Oxenreider and her husband spent a year travelling the globe with their three kids, 10 and under — and lived to tell about it! Here are some of her words of wisdom: "Travel happens differently when it's done with kids in tow. It has to. And that's okay. Going in with this attitude is more than half the battle, I've found."
How is travelling with kids different, and how can you live to tell your own travel tales, and do so with a smile?
Prep Ahead for Travel Success
Depending on your children's ages and personalities, as well as your parenting "method of operation," it may or may not be realistic to expect them to be flexible. A lot of this ties into what you expect of them on an everyday basis. Do you ever expect them to sit still for over an hour, expose them to new foods, or let them stay up past bed time? If not, suddenly asking them to be okay with all of those things — while away from the comforts of home and all that's familiar — will understandably result in disaster!
To avoid melt downs, try incorporating some flex into your daily routine and discover where your kids' limits are, and which areas you want to avoid stretching them, if possible. For instance, you may have a kid that gets "hangry" quite easily, making him or her prone to melt downs during a road trip, when you can't always schedule the ideal stopping point for the next meal. Maybe another member of your family feels ill with a diet of travel stop fare. There's a simple solution, of course: pack healthy snacks before you go.
Adjust Your Expectations
Sure, maybe you could have made the trip your GPS predicted would take 5 hours in that same amount of time, if you didn't have kids in tow. But you do. Adjusting your expectations might mean doubling the GPS prediction, so you feel relieved when it doesn't take quite the full 10 hours after all! In addition to anticipating the need for extra stops, we need to keep our kids' other needs in view: Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean your kids don't have the same need for structure, sleep, down time, and good nutrition that they do when you're home. You can fulfill those needs while travelling, but you need to plan for it.
Keep a "Bag of Tricks" on Hand
You'll want to have more than snacks on hand, to help travel time fly. The key is to have a variety of activities on hand, to help the time go by more quickly. But don't pull them all out at once — you'll want to keep the element of surprise on your side! Here's a sampling of ideas you may want to include:
• Group travel games for the road & conversation starters for road trips
• Travel-friendly activity books like those from Melissa and Doug®
• Handwork craft kits
• Mess-free sensory play items such as Wikki Stix®
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