Air travel is nothing short of miserable these days with all the rules and regulations changing at a moments notice.The obnoxiously over charged baggage fees and the overpriced airline food…hopefully without needles.It’s not fun for adults, imagine how awful it is for the kiddos. The mere thought of traveling with children fills me with anxiety but there are ways to make airline travel more tolerable. Here is my no fail list.
1. The Leap Pad is great for entertaining the kids and super easy to pack a few games so that they don’t lose interest.
2. Airplanes are flying tubes full of germs. I always purchase the smaller bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer just in case TSA swipes it from me because of all those crazy liquid rules. I can’t keep up with what is acceptable and what is not since I don’t fly nearly as often as I used to.
3. Again, this is something you’ll probably have to purchase once through security but I like to have them in the event the kids ears start to pop due to change in cabin pressure. Plus it keeps them busy and satisfied with a treat. Therefore mom and everyone around us is happy.
4. The Leap Pad has pretty much everything you can imagine in children’s entertainment but my kids still like coloring the old fashion way. I always purchase a few of those super inexpensive paperback books before the trip keeping them from the kids until we are on that airplane. That way it’s something new and interesting for them.
5. I don’t have babies anymore but I did keep a few of those receiving blankets for this purpose. They are super lightweight and small making it easy to pack into their carry on. Roll it up as a pillow or use as a blanket or a napkin when they spill their apple juice everywhere. Can’t beat it.
Not on the list: For kids around the age of 2-4 I used to buy a few toys from the $1 bin at Target and have them open when they started to get restless. Worked every time!
I’ve found through my travels that I can pack everything in the house for my kids but they will only be entertained by a few select things. Why carry all of those unnecessary toys when you don’t have to. It only makes it harder on you when you have to carry that heavy bag to your connecting flight. Over the years this is what I’ve scaled it down to and so far it’s worked.
