Travel Info
Travel Tips with small children
We all hope that going on our holidays will be a relaxing time compared to the daily grind of our working lives. However, when holidays include taking small children away this can sometimes be even more stressful. The smallest changes to a small child's routine can cause them to become bad tempered, which will cause everyone's journey to be affected. Read through our Travelling with Children tips to give you some ideas on how to make the best of such circumstances.
- When you are on the road on the way to the airport have a selection of games and snacks available. If the journey is going to be long, plan some stops along the way which will hopefully help to reduce the boredom of the time in the car. You could also play games on the journey such as getting your child to count all the green cars that they see.
- When a child is on a long journey tiredness will always become a factor. When a child becomes tired its attention span will start to decrease and it will start to become agitated. In typical fashion the time when they are likely to explode will be at a very embarrassing moment - such as at passport control, when your mind is probably on other things. The best way to deal with a child at such a time is to carefully listen to them making sure to maintain eye contact so that they know they are being listened to, you may also benefit from getting down to their level so that they are assured that you are taking what they have to say seriously.
- On a flight you can utilise similar techniques to those in a car. Once again it is useful to have snacks and drinks available, take the child's favourite small toy and bring along things to fill the child's time such as colouring books. You may want to use distraction to your advantage by telling the child something like "Look we're flying over London, can you spot our house?" If the flight is going to be long, try and get the child to have a period of sleep if at all possible, remember a tired child is a grumpy child.
- If a child is behaving well remember to praise them, this will give them a benchmark that they will hopefully remember should they start to misbehave at a later stage on the journey.
- There will be many times when you are travelling abroad or whilst actually there that you will need to make your child do something. When telling them be calm, yet firm and explain not only what you want them to do but also why. On the same token, if your child needs to speak to you, make sure you give them the time and listen to them carefully. You might want to give them the choice of where the family will eat on occasion so that they feel part of the decision process, especially if the food at the resort is not the sort of thing they are used to at home.
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