5 Ways to Travel with Children

When brainstorming family outings, I sometimes think of the funny onion item , “Mother spends beach holidays taking over all household duties near the ocean.” How can you make a family holiday feel like a real escape – not only for children, but also for adults? Here, experienced mothers share their tried-and-tested tips.

I begin packing the week before we leave.

1. I put out a suitcase or put a bunch out of the way and when I think of something (insect spray, sun hat, headphones), I just pack it instead of crawling just before we leave.

2. Since I heard that anticipation is half the fun, we include the children in the planning section – learn a little about the story, where we are at the moment, what things we want to do there.

3. We bring headlights. They are so practical and pleasant for children when they are in a new room or when you all share a hotel room with a sleeping baby.

4. When we eat out with children at every meal, it can sometimes be like a frill. That’s why we buy groceries and cook – and save ourselves eating out in some special restaurants.

How to Travel?

5. My best advice to simplify air travel is to keep your children always nice and disadvantaged when they are not flying, so that you can claim the price of screen time for yourself and shower them as a bribe for good behaviour. We don’t give them juice in our normal lives, so the promise of their own little Cranapple can is tempting.

6. I think it’s great that exploring a new city as a family gives us a better idea of what it’s like to live there. With children, we experience grocery stores, playgrounds in the neighborhood and local attractions that we would probably miss on an adult trip. We design the itinerary so that everyone can choose one activity per day and we switch between adults and children. The rule is that you must support the recommendations of others. So if you stick it together on Mum’s walk through the museum, you won’t be interrupted in the park – and your chances of ice cream are increasing exponentially.

Concuslion

Always say to your children, “It’s an adventure!” My father told me that I grew up. Energy is so contagious. When I am stressed, impatient and grumpy, my children feel it and it can get sour for everyone. But when I’m at the end, the day gets all the funnier. As a parent, you can turn everything – even the mistakes, the detours, the forgotten nappies! – into an adventure.