Although traveling is usually a relaxing prospect, adding children into the mix can make trips more stressful than relaxing. Most children have short attention spans and have a tendency of misbehaving from time to time, something that could throw a wrench in your travel plans. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to calm your children down during travels and make the whole ordeal less stressful. These tricks will work whether vacationing to Orlando to visit Disney or flying to Canada to look at Halton real estate. So how can you deal with the stress of traveling with kids?
Here are eight tips for traveling with children.
Include Them in Planning
The first thing that you need to do when traveling with children is to include them in the planning. Allow the children to provide feedback and make suggestions for the trip. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to cede the entire planning process to them, but you should value their input and allow them to choose a few activities. If you completely ignore their wishes and feedback, they will get quite upset and drag their feet the entire trip. However, allowing them to provide feedback or pick some activities can make the trip much more fun for them, something that will keep them happy and on their best behavior.
Lay Ground Rules
Another thing that you should do before you leave for your trip is to establish ground rules for how the children should behave. Make sure they know what’s acceptable and what isn’t, as well as what the punishments will be if they don’t behave. Having clear ground rules in place will provide guidelines for the children to follow, and if they don’t they know what the punishment will be. Of course, there’s no guarantee that the children will follow the guidelines, but establishing ground rules makes it much more likely.
Slow the Pace
Many people like to experience as much as possible when traveling, blitzing through various attractions. Unfortunately, this isn’t really possible when traveling with children. It’s guaranteed that something will come up eventually, or your child will get tired and want a break. In order to prepare for this, you should slow the pace of the vacation. Not only will this help you avoid problems with your children, but it also will allow you to take in everything your trip has to offer.
Pack Snacks
Kids are known to get hungry often, and they always want to eat at various times throughout the day. Obviously, when you’re traveling, you can’t stop and get food every time your child wants to eat. Unfortunately, this could cause some strife, as your child may get angry or grumpy from not being fed. In order to avoid this, you should pack plenty of snacks when traveling with children. Whenever your child gets hungry, simply give them one of the snacks you packed to tide them over until you get a meal.
Take Advantage of Discounts
One of the best parts about traveling with children are the child discounts that you can take advantage of. You could save a lot on flights, hotels, and admission fees simply because companies charge lower prices for children. These companies do this to be more family-friendly and to entice families to do business with them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage. If you’re traveling with children, make sure you utilize these discounts whenever possible.
Bring Electronics
While constant hunger from your child is something you’ll have to worry about on your travels with children, it definitely isn’t the only thing. Another problem you’ll have to tackle is boredom, especially on flights and long car rides. There’s nothing rowdier than a bored child looking for entertainment, so you have to find something to keep them preoccupied. One of the best ways of doing this is to bring electronics such as a phone or a game console. If your child starts to get bored and needs some entertainment, simply give them some electronics to keep them preoccupied for the foreseeable future.
Share Contact Information
One of the biggest fears that parents have when traveling with children is getting separated. One way to prevent this from happening is to ensure that everyone in your party has each other’s contact information. Doing so means that whenever someone is separated, they’ll always have the means of linking back up with other family members. Of course, this will only work if all family members have access to phones, but if they do it can be a great way to avoid separation when traveling.
Have an Emergency Plan
Sometimes having everyone’s contact information isn’t enough, or sometimes there may be people in your party that simply don’t have phones. In these situations, it’s important to create an emergency plan to follow. Create plans for events such as the party getting separated, detailing things such as where you should all meet up. If your children are too young to have their own phones, this is a necessary step you’ll have to take just in case the family gets separated.
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