Flying to an exotic destination is exciting for everyone but long-haul flights can be stressful for parents with young children. Keeping a child entertained for 12+ hours in a confined space can be challenging but these tips may give you some ideas for making flying with your children less stressful.
In no order, here are 5 tips for making flying with your children less stressful.
Pack Your Own Activities
The on-board entertainment provided by airlines these days is great with a huge choice of films, music, games and tv shows available during the flight. These will certainly provide some entertainment for your little ones but don’t rely on the tv screen as your sole source of entertainment. Bringing a colouring book or some plain paper for your little ones to do their own drawings or create your own quiz. My 5-year-old spent an hour naming ten dinosaurs, drawing some planets, drawing his family and doing some simple sums and spellings (all of which took ten minutes to set up).
Book Night Flights
One of the easiest ways to enjoy a stress-free flight with children is to book a night time flight if possible. Flying as near to bed time on a long-haul flight will ensure your child sleeps for a good portion of the flight. Take off and descent may be uncomfortable for young children so bring some sweets for them to suck on to help with the equalisation of ear pressure if they are old enough to suck sweets.
Take Your Time with On Board Meals
Meal time is not a race! The anticipation of the food trolley coming to deliver that tasty airline food and taking your time to enjoy the box of goodies can pass a whole hour if you take time with each part of the meal.
Surprise Toy or Magazine
There are a plethora of kids magazines on the market with free toys, puzzles, crafting activities, colouring and stickers. Kids love stickers! A surprise toy dispensed half way through the flight will give your child a boost and hopefully provide a distraction when they are bored.
Stretch Your Legs
Being sat down for long periods is dull for anyone but especially for kids who all seam to have an unlimited amount of energy. Taking brief strolls on the plane will help relieve the boredom and get the blood flowing. We are not suggesting playing hide and seek – that would be wrong but stretching the legs out a few times during the flight helps. Obviously don’t wake them to do this if they are snoozing.
We hope these tips help you enjoy your next flight a little bit more. If you have some tips of your own, why not let us know.
If you are planning a trip this summer, get in touch, we have fabulous rates on all types of flights to cities worldwide.