5 Tips For Traveling with Kids

Just before I became pregnant, my father was diagnosed with cancer. In between my daughter's birth and his death three years later, she and I took 45 plane trips, 16 of them transatlantic. We live in Turkey, my home town is in Oregon. It takes three airplanes to get there, and three back. We were usually seated in the baby ghetto, up in the front of the compartment, with other families. When you get onto a transatlantic flight (11 hours) with a baby or toddler, people look at you with fear and apprehension. It takes a bit of doing to get through it smoothly, but it is possible. At the end of flights I was often thanked by the people sitting around me. The most important thing to keep in mind is that in a closed environment with border cranky people is that the flight time is not a time for you, as the parent, to sleep or read or watch movies or otherwise indulge in "me time". I sat across the aisle from a woman with two kids and they literally SCREAMED the whole way from Copenhagen to Seattle. The mother ignored them except for meal times. I've been on flights with little boys running up and down the aisles with flashing screeching space guns (pre 9/11). I have had mothers point to us and send their little terrors over to talk to us because we have a child (I sent them back). Pack books, snacks, art supplies, anything your child will enjoy doing, and then do it with him or her. Don't bother with your own book, though a magazine might do. Don't forget gum to help with ears on take off and landing. If you have three flights in one direction like we did (do), pack a change of clothes for each person so that at the final leg you can change and have fresh clothes for arrival (you can spill and rip all kinds of stuff on yourself going transatlantic). Pack some surprises to pull out at random moments. Travelling with a baby or toddler is stressful, but it has its moments. When my daughter was two, we took a domestic flight in Turkey. She got into her seat, looked up at me and said, "Where's the lady with the pillow and the coke?"

Great tips! The one about buying diapers and wipes at the destination is a great one. Our suitcases are often full and we haven't even packed our clothes. If your kids have a favorite toy or blanket, we've often purchased an additional one just in case it gets lost when we are traveling. Thanks so much for all this good advice