The next frequently heard question I get:
"Kids on a Plane??? On a LONG plane ride, even??"
Definitely possible, and, contrary to popular belief, it CAN be done without being a pain to those around you! In fact, there are some perks, too - you generally will board first if you have a “small child” with you, and “small” is generally open to your own interpretation.
Stroller for the airport
-We generally don’t use a stroller with Micaiah, we almost always have had him in a sling, an ergo, etc. For the airport: bring a stroller! It WILL help during layovers and extra time in the airport; you’ll be more fatigued than normal and it’ll be really nice NOT to be wearing him/her at that point (even if you almost always do anyways). It’ll make hurrying through the airport to a connecting flight easier, too, and you might be able to hook your laptop case or some other surprisingly heavier-as-you-carry-it-for-hours bag onto the back of it!
-One thing that doesn’t tend to be public knowledge until you show up with a kid and a stroller: you don’t have to check it at baggage claim, but you don’t have to take it on the plane itself either! When you’re checking your bags, they will give you a tag (and this does NOT count towards checked luggage). When you go through the gates to board, right before you step on to the plane, you can leave it there with the crew and they will put it with the baggage at the very end, bringing it out to that same spot in the tunnel to the new airport when you land!
Takeoff and Landing:
-If your kid is still nursing (breastfeeding), perfect! Latch ‘em on for takeoff and landing. No joke – this will completely prevent the ear-popping-painful-loudness that most people associate with babies on a plane. Only one flight attendant on one flight noticed how we kept him happy, and she was thrilled since she always followed that advice too.
-If your kid is older and no longer nursing, bring lollypops – at least 2 for each takeoff and 2 for each landing. (I say 2 because inevitably there’ll be times when you think you’re about to take off, then you “taxi” [drive around the runway] for another half hour). This’ll be exciting for the kid whether or not he gets lollypops on normal occasions. For our oldest, he was SO excited for takeoff, since that meant he got to break into the bag of (organic, infused w/a little fruit juice) lollypops that we got for the occasion! We started rolling, & he KNEW that that means it’s time to have one! It was finished about 20 minutes before we got into the air…thankfully we had extras!
During the Flight:
-Many flights now have the interactive screen on the seats, and THAT is fantastic for keeping them occupied (we generally extremely limit TV, but you’ve got to make exceptions at times). Though the flight was now 7 months ago, Micaiah (age 3) still remembers the name of the show that he watched on the KLM flight in October! [It was "Miffy" the rabbit]. DO NOT RELY ON THIS, though, as the sole or even primary source of entertainment! If you do, chances are your kid’s screen will be broken & the plane will be full (we’ve had one of the 3 of us without a working screen on more flights than we’ve had them all working, and spread across a number of airlines, some of them the premier airlines!).
-Bring an extra bag (for Kai it was a new mini-Thomas backpack, new & special for the trip), filled with kid amusements. You know your kid – many like books, some don’t; some love to color, some don’t. Fill the bag with some of his/her favorite things to play with/look at. ALSO: have new, exciting versions of them in the bag to break out for the first time on the flight! Kai LOVES books, so he had one new activity book for each flight that we took. Feel free to be creative & try new things that they haven’t tried but might if they’re bored – for Kai it was one of those sets of cardboard shapes/pictures that you thread shoelaces through (“sewing” them). He loved it!
A few suggestions/ideas for things to bring (because we unsuccessfully looked online for a list like this):
- Colorforms
- Sewing Cards
- Activity Books (crossword puzzles, writing activities, matching, etc, as appropriate for your kid)
- DVDs
- Play-Doh
- Color Wonder Markers (won't get all over/leave stray marks)
- Crayons & coloring books
- DVD's
- Action Figures if he/she's so inclined (Kai's never really been into them)
- Picture Books about the place you're going ("Learn about ____!") or have just been ("Wow, we were there!")
- iPad or other brand Tablet (games, videos, music, audio books, etc, all stored in one handy device!)
- Nook, Kindle, or other eBook reader filled with books for the flight and beyond (for the kid AND you!)
-Bring LOTS of extra snacks if you have room in your carry-ons. General rule is that if it’s sealed and not produce or a drink, you can take it on. (Sometimes drinks are ok depending on where in the airport they were purchased). Airlines are generally good at keeping you hydrated (you can always get more drinks, even if it’s not the “official” drink time), but snacks probably won’t come fast enough for the little ones, especially if they’re finicky eaters at all and find the airplane faire….wanting for something more.
-Bring extra clothes, even if your kid’s been potty trained for quite a while! It’s an exciting time, & they may forget to try until it’s too late, or there may be lines for all bathrooms at that crucial moment when she realizes “I HAVE TO GO!!” It’s also good in case of drink spillage – those little trays can be surprisingly hard to navigate if you’re little (or if a little one is on your lap).
-Parents: communicate well to each other in flight. Don’t clock out, and make sure to listen to your spouse. One of you may genuinely feel sick or be taking the brunt of everything while the other has a wonderful, relaxing, restful flight. That, my friends, is not fair. I say this as the one who did the clocking out, even as my wife was nauseous – I thought she was just trying to get me to take more than “my fair share” of holding the baby/taking him to the potty, when it turned out that she had at that point thrown up about 4 times already, and I had mostly slept through it! I felt SO BAD once I realized (and there were about 2 of 21 hours left)!!
-Please find another way to ask your kid to speak quietly than to go “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Often, parents shushing their kids are louder than the noise that the kid was making!! For some people (myself included), it’s hard to hear yourself when you talk on a plane, so of course they’ll have a tendency to speak loud. Quiet reminders that “It’s okay, you can use a quiet voice…I can hear you,” can work much better, and are more pleasant than inundating the plane with the repeating sounds of loud hissing.
-Have fun! Make it a fun trip – a learning experience! You may have traveled on many planes before, but this is something SO new and SO neat and SO cool, even to a kid who has been on multiple airplanes already! You can point out different parts of the plane (“Look! We each have our own little light!” "Look, there's the wing!" "Look! You have your own little table!" “Look – there’s the potty! Look at how different this one looks!”). Every day with a kid can be a learning experience - how much more so something like an airplane trip!!
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