Explore Manila

After such a stressful trip last month, I wonder, is it really possible to travel without stress when you are with your little kids? I can’t say yes or even no. But I came across this nice article from SimpleMom which seems helpful in case we will travel again in the near future. Here are the tips and techniques…

1. Throw “normal” out the window.

Sounds like a great idea. I know many of us have rules at home and we need to follow it everyday but when we travel, things change. So it would be nice to at least not be “normal” just for this trip and enjoy the moment. But as the article stated, make sure the kids know that this is only because you are on a family trip and things will get back to normal when you get home.

2. Don’t worry about those around you.

I’m guilty about this. I tend to worry on what people might say especially if the kids would cry during a late night flight. This is what I like about what the article said,

“We can’t control how people react to us; We can only control our attitudes.”

I guess if we stop worrying about what people would say we would enjoy our trip inspite of kids whining and getting tired.

3. Bring snacks.

The best advice I’ve had so far and the one thing that I make sure I do every time we travel. I bring biscuits, a little bit of candy, sandwiches, milk and water for the kids. This also applies to us, parents.

4. Have special “traveling toys.”

Hmmm…I don’t bring toys too often but I guess bringing traveling toys would be a great idea.

There are a few items we break out only on long flights. For our five-year-old, journals with colored pencils, sticker books, and a book of games (connect the dotes, mazes, and the like) go over well. For our two-year-old, we reveal a loved Matchbox car or a gadget (like a calculator) after we’ve settled in for awhile. And family-friendly airlines such as Lufthansa also often have special toys for their little customers.

5. Sleep when they sleep.

The only downside that I can see here is that you won’t be able to follow your itinerary rigidly. And expect that kids’ nap time won’t be followed.

Since kids’ energy is regained after sleeping, you won’t definitely be able to sleep once they are awake.

These five tips are definitely useful when you are going to travel with your little ones. I wish they also have tips on how to shop while traveling with kids. I can’t forget those discount prescription glasses that I bought a couple of years ago. I was thorough then and I didn’t have kids so I was able to REALLY SHOP! Maybe in my next post, I will feature some tips on shopping while traveling with kids.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under All About Traveling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.