Traveling with Small Children

A friend of mine was flying down to San Francisco to run the Nike Half Marathon.  She asked me for some tips for flying with her almost one year old.  After typing up my tips and sending them to her, I realized that these should be shared with everyone, because at some point in our life, we will find ourselves with an infant on our lap riding a silver tube through the air.

These tips are listed only in the order I thought them up, so my apologies if anything seems out of order to you.

1. A car seat won't be counted against you in the baggage department, so it's good to bring it and check it with your luggage. You may plan to take public transportation everywhere, but how will you be getting to your final destination from the airport? If by something on wheels that isn't a city bus, you'll need a car seat. Plus, you never know what kind of plans will crop up and you may need one. Car seats are too expensive to have to purchase once you're there.

2. Take a stroller with you all the way to the gate, but don't put your kid in it. Put the kid in a child carrier and throw your carry on bags on the stroller. It is much easier and less painful to get through the airport that way. The stroller can be gate checked and will be waiting for you when you deboard.

3. If you have assigned seats, wait until the last possible moment to board the plane. This pre-boarding for families with small children is a joke. You don't want to spend any more time on the airplane than you really need to. Also, when the plane lands, wait until everyone else has deboarded before getting your stuff. It will be less stressful, and all of your luggage will have already been pulled off the baggage claim and waiting for you when you get there.

4. Buy a ridiculous amount of snacks, and mostly food that you wouldn't normally feed your child because it's too this or too that, but that you know your kid will love and will probably go insane over. Do the same with toys. In fact, hide some of his or her favorite toys right now so that they are completely forgotten, and pack those. Do not let your child know that you have them, or that they exist, even when you get on the plane. Wait until the last possible second, when you are pretty sure that if you don't do something right this moment, your kid will start losing their mind and all the passengers on the airplane will hate you. That's when you pull one thing out. ONE. THING. Let it entertain your child until you get to the same nearly crazy point, and then pull out another thing, but just one. The idea is that you will get through the flight without going through your stash, because you have another flight home, and if your kid knows what you have in your bag, you'll be up the proverbial creek.

5. Get an aisle seat. (This is especially advantageous on Southwest Flights that are not overbooked).

6. Practice changing a diaper on a thimble, because most airplanes don't have changing tables, and if they do, they are the size of a lunch tray. I did diaper changes on the toilet seat.

7. If you are still nursing, nurse on take-off and landing. If people glare at you, stare them down.  It's intimidating to maintain eye contact with a nursing mother. If they complain, tell them it's better than blood curdling screams, and at least your bosoms are silky smooth. If your kiddo takes a bottle and/or you're uncomfortable nursing with a stranger's elbow in your ribs, give him or her a bottle at take-off and landing. Once, I was lucky to sit next to a young man who had a Mormon upbringing, with a mother who nursed all 7 of them, so when I told him I was going to have to nurse my child, he told me that it not only was OK, he asked if there was anything he could do to help. THAT was unexpected. And then my son proceeded to kick him the entire time he nursed.

8. Ask for extra snacks when they come around, and for your beverages to stay in their original containers, unopened. You may end up wearing them otherwise.

9. I just remembered the whole TSA craziness. You can bring anything you want as far as food goes. They will try to tell you that your applesauce cup is above the 2oz limit, but they can't stop you from bringing it. If it is food for your child, you can bring it. Whatever it is. Plan extra time for the TSA because you will have to claim everything when your time comes, and they will have to swab everything and attempt to shame you for not simply purchasing the overpriced "food for purchase" on board, and cause you to worry that you're going to miss your flight, but trust me on this one. Here is the information from the TSA website. I brought 5 ziplock containers of bone broth through once because "my child has terrible allergies and is on a special diet" and after three minutes of shaming, they let me go. Also, you can't wear your baby through the machine, nor can you push baby in the stroller. But you likely won't have to do the body scan thing because you'll have him or her in your arms.

What are some of your tricks to survive an airplane ride with small children?

Tips for Successful Road Trips with Children

This past week, I took the kids on a road trip to visit my grandmother down in Merced, CA.  I'll write more about our adventure later.  What I wanted to write down right now was a list of things I learned during this trip that may help you have a successful road trip with your own children.

1.  When planning your final destination, and the time you expect to reach said destination, add about five hours. 
This happened to us on our last day, the home stretch.  I told my husband we should be home for dinner.  When we were at our last stop before home (which was dinner time), I called him to let him know we wouldn't make it.  We stopped at a Subway to get dinner for the car, which added another 30 minutes.  Then we hit construction, another 30 minutes.  Once we were out of the construction, and five miles from the highway that would lead home and away from the coast, both kids had to poop.  That added another 45 minutes to our trip, and we didn't get home until after 10pm.

2.  When you see a rest stop sign, don't ask your children if they need to go potty, just pull in to the rest stop. 
As Murphy's Law would have it, every time I saw a sign for a rest stop coming up, I would ask the kids if they had to go.  Naturally, they would say no.  As soon as we passed the rest area off-ramp, one of them would begin crying that they needed to pee.

3.  If you are the solo adult for the trip, keep the cooler with food in the passenger seat.  When the children start complaining of hunger, reach in and toss back some food like they're caged lions. 
Because, on a road trip, that really is what they are.  My favorite go-tos are Lara Bars, trail mix, salami and fruit.

4.  Always anticipate where you may need to pull over to the side of the road for an emergency bathroom break.  
Because even if you heed #2, you will still need to do this.

5.  While you may plan 10 activities to do before your final destination, be OK with the fact that you may only get to do about 3.  
Everything takes longer with children involved.  Pick your three "must-see" activities, and all the others will be bonus.

6.  The television in the motel room will keep your children occupied long enough to get the luggage out of the car.  
This is especially helpful if you are the solo parent on the road trip.  We don't have a TV at home, so the novelty of it, even though it was CNN, was enough to keep my kids from running out onto the balcony, climbing over the rail and dropping three stories below.

7.  Sometimes the kids sleep better in their sleeping bags from home than on unfamiliar hotel room beds. 
My son had a hard time getting settled in one of the hotel rooms.  He asked for his sleeping bag.  He tried to sleep in it on the bed, but eventually climbed out, pulled his bag to the floor, and slept a good 10 hours.

8.  A dinner of sandwiches at a local park sometimes makes a hard day easy again.  
Rather than going to a diner or grabbing burgers for the car, we found a park, made some PBJ's and played for a while.  It made the last three hours of driving bearable because the children were happy again.

9. An old digital camera will keep a child happy and noticing the amazing scenery you're driving through.  
I gave E my old digital camera last fall.  She loves it, and she spent quite a lot of time taking pictures from the car.  I'd point out things, like Mt. Shasta, and she'd say, "Oooh, that's beautiful.  I'm going to take a picture."

10.  Even in Spanish, the Frozen soundtrack gets old.  Make sure you have a variety of music that everyone can agree on. 
Since they go to Spanish Immersion school, I bought them the Frozen soundtrack in Spanish.  I didn't think it could get to me like the English version, since I wouldn't know the words.  It was worse, because I don't know the words.  Now I have "Libre Soy, Libre Soy, la la la la la la la....." stuck in my head.

I will be keeping all of these tips in mind when we take our second trip of the summer in August.  We're heading to Glacier National Park.  This time, we'll be taking Daddy.