Traveling Success with Small Children

As you plan your vacation with your little ones, here are some tips to help make your trip a success:

Buy A Travel Buddy And Blanket
Most small children have a special stuffed animal or a security blanket. And we have all learned how much they help at nap time or just calming them down when they are stressed.

The danger of bringing along their favorite toys from home is that it could easily get lost somewhere along the way. And unlike when they are misplaced at home, when they are lost, they are gone forever. This can be very traumatic to a young child and ruin any vacation.

Instead, plan ahead by buying a new “special” stuffed animal and a new “blankie” just for the trip. Kids always love getting new things and this will start building their anticipation for the vacation. It will also relieve some of their anxiety before the trip starts by reassuring them traveling to new places is fun.

Most importantly if either of these new gifts happen to be lost along the way, they don’t have the years of sentimental attachment as their favorite ones from home and can quickly be replaced with some souvenir from your destination.

Plan Time To Take Breaks
As parents, we often marvel at the seemingly endless energy of our kids. This is because they run full steam until they run out of juice. They have no yet learned how to pace themselves. So in reality, it is us parents who have the stamina to continue pushing through a long day.

Vacations are expensive. Knowing this often leads us to jam-pack our days full of activities to get the best return on investment. For example, if we are spending several hundred dollars on a theme park, many of us plan on being the first ones in the park in the morning and the last ones to leave in the evening to get the most out of every dollar.

While we may be able to do this for a few days, pushing your little children to do so will inevitably lead to a meltdown. This is no fun for you and leads to a bad experience and bad memories.

Instead, think of your vacations with your little kids as dipping your toes in and teaching them to be comfortable with the water. Plan your day around their natural, biological schedule. Get going early in the morning when they are often in good moods. The quit for an early lunch. Find a place to eat where you can get away from the commotion and take a nice long lunch. Then head back to your hotel for a nap at their usual time.

The more you can stay on their natural, biological schedule, the more quality time you will all get to have.

Buy Souvenirs At The End

Most any travel destination will be overflowing with gift shops stuffed with things your child will beg for more than you can image. Unless you have unlimited funds, which most of us don’t, you cannot possibly buy everything that they or even you want. So you have to be picky.

With my kids, I always limit them to only 1 souvenir each. And as they get older, I’ve even set a dollar limit to keep them from breaking the bank.

If you are strong enough to use that hard and fast rule, the worst mistake you can make is to let them buy the first thing they see at the first gift shop. This inevitably leads to them finding something they like better later in the vacation.

Telling them they only get 1 item and forcing them to wait helps them build patience and teaches them the valuable lesson of prioritization. However, this can sometimes led to an unpleasant meltdown. But this usually means it is time for a break/nap.

Even if they find the perfect souvenir in the first ten minutes and never want another, getting it at the beginning of your trip increases the chances of losing it before you get home. So if you decide to buy something for them before the end, try to bring it straight back to the hotel and keep it safe in your suitcase.

If you had already given them a travel buddy, they should be able to last.

Let Them Pack Their Own Suitcase
Travelling is the perfect opportunity to teach our children independence and decision making. It starts with letting them pick out their own clothes. (with your supervision, of course) You can teach them to plan ahead by deciding how many shirts, pants, socks, and underwear they need. Making the decisions themselves will help build confidence and excitement for the trip.

Letting them have their own little suitcase that they can carry themselves through the airport will also help teach them responsibility. Plus, it is so adorable you will want to make sure to snap a picture of them with it for your scrapbook. But like anything you teach them, you will need to keep an extra on to make sure they don’t leave it behind. It may be a little bit of extra work, but it will be worth it in the long run.

It is also a wise idea to bring a few of their outfits in your suitcase as well. Just in case the worst happens and it is lost along the way.

Bring A Jogger Stroller

Strollers are a lifesaver for all parents. It saves you from carrying your kids around all day as their little feet quickly get tired. Umbrella strollers have the nice advantage of being small and compact. They can be taken almost anywhere. But if you have the ability, be sure to get a jogger stroller instead.

Jogger strollers are far more sturdy and durable than umbrella or other larger strollers. They have rubber, air-filled tires just like bicycles. Because of this, they very easily can handle off-pavement routes without any hassle. Moreover, they have tremendous storage space below to save your back from carrying a diaper bag all day.

Lastly, they are far more comfortable and shaded for your child and it is easier for them to take a nap. This can save you a trip back to the hotel as you can sit in a quiet corner for a few hours and let them recharge before you get back to activities.

Written by Benjamin Ellefson, who is an avid traveler and author of the children’s book The Land without Color. Learn more at http://www.benjaminellefson.com/Land-without-Color/