Category: Travel and Tourism
I'm curious what people who have children think about this. I don't have kids, so I've never done it, but what is it like? Especially for those who travel with just themselves and the child.
What do you mean by travelling with kids, are you thinking about bus, car trips or plane rides?
Generally it takes a lot more stuff to travel with a kid, you hve to have a change of diapers, the bottle, the formula or juice, clean clothes, a bib and a pacifier. It's actually fairly easy to store all that in a backpack and plop the kid in there two, or use a sling if the baby is less than 6 months old.
As for flying, it's been incredibly easy, our boys both love it and fall asleep with the engine noise and vibrarion fairly easily. Now that we have a 3 year old I suspect it might be a littlemore difficult, but kids, at least our kids, love trips and exploring.
Car trips are similar, if you get them at the right time, sing in the car and make it fun for the first hour, you often get an hour to two of napping out of them afterwards, so we've found a 3 hour drive is usually no problem, when you approach 4 or 5 you have to make stops or deal with some significant unhappiness.
At hotels you ahve to change your pattern quite a bit. You may not want to go to a restaurant and eat and prefer takeaway food, some hotel bars will not even let you in with a kid so even if you get a free drink happy hour coupon you can't use it when travelling with a child, so if you want a glass of wine or a drink you have to bring it and mix it yourself (hey, I like a drink or two but it is certainly not essential by any means but it is one of the things I noticed you do different with kids on a trip).
You can't stay up very late so you ahve to plan your activites between 8 and 11am ish and then allow for a nap and do a 3 to 7 afternoon planning for something, night shows won't work, kids get very grumpy between 1pm and 3pm if they don't get a nap.
If you do take the kids to a restaurant you tend to go for either fast food or buffets, since it is so quick and you can get the kid settled with food right away, which is very nice.
On the upside, you love doing the little things again, kids get so excited when they see new stuff, the ocean or an exhibit, and get so happy being in a new place and exploring these things get a lot more exciting for you too.
We find silly kids shows and museums and playgrounds and train rides and running on the beach so much more fun now that we have our boys.
But that pertains more to a vacation than the travelling part I suppose.
cheers
-B
It doesn't sound nearly as bad as a lot of the complaining young mothers I've heard on planes.
Yes, I meant mostly travelling in general, and particularly when it is just a blind person travelling with their kids when asistance is usually required.
One thing we did with our daughter's first plane trip was before we went, we got a book for her on airplanes. She loved it, and practically had it memorized. So when we took off, she was saying things like "Taxiing to the runway," "Up in the clouds," etc. Then the airplane is no big deal, but kind of fun.
Traveling with a child takes a lot of consideration. It does help to have two people, be yu blind or sighted, unless the one person has four arms. We also had her "pretend she was a baby" that's what we called it, and had her sit in one of those strollers they have at the airport. I even popped open this umbrella thing they had, told her it was a little roof.
The most uncomfortable part was when she had to go back into the car seat and stay in it while we landed. While we were in the air, she had been going between mom and dad.
It is challenging because you have a young one. I guess some could complain, and it is certainly the fashion for certain groups of American women to complain about most things, so that may not be surprising, sort of like the way men of my grandfather's age might have complained about women, since it was fashionable for them.
Man or woman, if you're traveling with kids it's easier to travel with two adults. Had we no stroller, I'd have just carried her on my shoulders.
Then, just in case I could have begun some sort of belly ache session ... my brother has triplets and he has had to fly with them. And they are extremely energetic and curious.
I guess like most things, it's a matter of degree.
I guess I should specify that I've never flown with our boys by myself, it's always been the two of us together with them.
I'd fly with them on a direct flight, but I would not want to sit around and wait for ground services at JFK with a screaming child or two in tow, that sounds awful.
I think travelling, eating out and those things are as much of a problem as you make it. It is easy to decide these things are impossible and never do them, and so when you do them your kids feel they are a big deal.
We've always taken our kids out to restaurants, though we may have chosen more family friendly places, we try to travel as much, although we do more by car now than by plane, and make sure we get some travelling experience and our kids too.
With very little kids we got a saltwater solution to clean up their sinuses before takeoff and landing, we've avoided the ear pressure problem so far and that may have helped a lot.
Wildebrew, you remind me of one other thing:
We never knew that learning to pop one's ears is actually learned behavior. Both my wife and I grew up in hilly country but where we moved with our daughter was extremely flat. So, when she was four, we flew back home and on the way she literally couldn't pop her ears. Still kinda makes me sad thinkin' about it, she knew it was her ears but couldn't. Really hard to explain, that, and if you don't live around hills, well, you know, airplanes are a lot worse for popping the ears than just going up and down hills.
Kinda interesting how much we think is natural or instinct, but is really learned.
I know people who have travelled with small children and I can say the following...
If you're that desperate, and some people are, though I dislike it myself, you can approach a doctor who will recommend something to calm the child for the flight. I know someone who was prescribed valium for his daughters before a flight from australia from the USA.
I don't know how possible it is, but for any child that isn't at the talking and understanding age where you can tell them how to pop their ears, try to find a way of easing the pressure, because for small children who don't understand, much less explain it, it's incredibly unnerving.
I remember on one of my first flight, they gave us something very strong to smell, eucoliptus oil I think I'm not sure if that would help though, but I was quite young when i had that.
finally, if you have a restless type of baby, don't travel on your own if it's a long hall flight, mainly because if it's got on the plane for nothing, then you have to hold it in most cases. I know a mother who actually paid for a seat for her 2 year old because she wanted to be able to put her down at times.
If you do that however, make sure the airline knows that, because there have been cases where they have assumed that the infant will sit on its mother and double booked the seat, and also not provided suitable food for the child.
i remember being given a sweet to suck on at take off and landing when i was very young. i now know this was to help equilise pressure in the ears on take off and landing, as sucking a sweet will do this. hth.
I was given gum, but it didn't do much for my ears. Yawning works best for me, as long as I do it often enough.
I guess different things work better for different people.
it's got to be something really strong I find, something that would clear your throat and nose if you had a cold seems to work well.
i may annoy some of you, but never ever travel long distances wisth small children. Wait until they are large ones. Little kids can get totally bent out of shape by change. They can regress in behaviors and if we are on a plane, it is almost impossible to discipline them. Then every one around you is treated to whining and temper tantrums.
Nursing moms are lucky. Offering the breast at take off and landing helps kids. the sucking takes care of the ears.
the thing is, is that some people have to do it, if they want to see their family with the child.
I know that if Peter and I have a child, I will want to take it back to Australia once or twice when it is young. my family haven't got the money to visit us, but I know they will want to see it. especially my grandfather, if he is still alive, whitch I really really hope.
Interesting topic...I just don't check the Travel & Tourism section much so I didn't see it until now. My daughter is having a tantrum about her dad going out,and I am leaving her alone until she settles down, so here I am.
I have experience traveling w my husband & daughter when she was 21 months. I would not reccommend traveling w a child this young outside the industrialized world...U S, Canada, western Europe, Australia. We travelled to Mr Sponge's native Algeria. If we go again it will be STRICTLY so his parents can see their granddaughter, and it will be the final time. The travel (trans Atlantic to western Europe, than further south to the Algiers airport) is too difficult on me, and I have heard ENOUGH from expatriates here criticizing western culture, no matter what you have or don't have to offer 'em here they can do better back home, I just don't ever want to see the place but maybe one final time.
The thing about travelling outside the industrialized world is things you take for granted here, like Pedialyte for diarrhea & vomiting, just aren't available in less developed parts of the world. They have an alkaseltzer like solution that must be disposed of in 24 hours (unlike Pedialyte's 48 hour period), & you can't get the little devils to drink the alkaseltzer like solution, so you have to cross your fingers they don't dehydrate. Standards in stores & restaurants aren't the same here, so even I got a mild upset stomach when we ate in restaurants there. Also there weren't little luxuries like kids' books or playgrounds there, kids pretty much play in the street there, which is something I don't care for at all. Expats here complain U S kids are spoiled, third world kids make due with what they have, which is a point...less can be more & I don't like my mother spoiling Mimi with gifts, but I was talking about medicine & a separate play area for my daughter, not the latest techno toys.
In short I wouldn't do much travel with a very young child...say less than nine years of age...based on my own experience & definitely not outside the industrialized world, unless it's urgent, maybe a relative may not have another opportunity to see that child or can't travel themselves. Wait until they're old enough to remember any trip or it's not really worth the cost.