I want my kids to love travel as much as I do. When my grandparents generously gifted us accommodations in Orlando, we couldn’t say no. Who doesn’t dream of taking their babies to Disney World?
This would mean flying with a 2- year old and an 8-month old. Eeeek. But it was better than I expected. I was prepared. My kids were prepared. And it helps that my oldest is fascinated by airplanes and helicopters (or hair-peen and helicop as she calls it!)
My two year old, E., is awesome, but she can be difficult. She’s very intelligent, high energy, a little anxious, but very, very sweet and kind. I was most worried about her. My 8 month old, A., is content, easy going and happy as long as her basic needs are met. Both would present some challenges, but it was honestly a piece of cake!
Snacks!
This is huge. My kids would do anything for snacks! I kept them coming with little regard for nutrition. My only priority was keeping them happy!
I had cookies, fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, puffs, popcorn, teething wafers and sandwich crackers. I kept these a secret until we took off and I was worried about the pain of the ear popping. Then I whipped out the selection and let them take their pick. The fruit snacks were the biggest hit for E, with the cookies coming as a close second.
New Activity
Right before we left for the trip, I stopped at the store and picked up a few, cheap items to bring on the plane. For A, I grabbed a textured, crinkly, soft book and a new item to chew on. For E, I got a new coloring book, stickers and crayons. Every time I brought something new out, I made it seem like a huge deal. “LOOK AT THIS! A brand new, Elmo coloring book!! With STICKERS?! OH MY GOODNESS!!”
Since we were headed to Disney World, a few of the things I grabbed were on “theme.” Minnie Mouse stickers and the Mickey Mouse themed Goldfish crackers were a hit. In total, I spent about $15 on items for the plane.
Worked like a charm!
Talk Through Everything
This one is mostly just for E, though A pretended to care. As I mentioned above, E gets anxious about new things. I told her about EVERYTHING! “Ok, we’re getting out of the car now, you’re going to sit in the stroller. We’re going to get our tickets and give our bag to the nice lady! Good work! Now we’re going to wait in this line and they’re going to send our small bags through the machine!” Etc, etc.
When it was time to get on the plane, we talked a lot about how everyone was going to Florida, and the plane was going to drive on the ground, then speed up and go high into the sky! I made sure she knew there were going to be loud sounds and a funny feeling in her belly and ears, but we can have a snack to help us! She did AMAZING! Having clear expectations of what was to come helped her immensely.
We also got to the airport early so we could talk about what the planes look like during take off, what it would be like to be inside, etc. It helped her grow more accustomed to the idea before experiencing it for herself.
Before the trip, we watched a lot of videos about airplanes and looked at picture books with aircrafts in them. This made it so that nothing was a surprise to her once it was time to go. She was already fascinated by airplanes and helicopters, but had never seen one up close or been inside of one. Our favorite video to learn about airplanes is this one by Blippi (I’m sorry in advance if this is how your toddler finds Blippi…)
Security Items
I let my daughter pick one thing to take on the plane with her to help feel safe, and she picked a baby doll. This worked great because if she started to get scared, I told her to show her baby what was happening. As the flight went on, whenever she was getting restless I’d tell her to show baby the clouds out the window, or draw baby a picture, give her snuggles, etc.
Not only was this a great security item for her, but taking care of baby gave her a job to do and provided great distraction.
Electronics
We saved our iPad for the tail end of the flight when E was getting tired and restless. I downloaded a few apps that didn’t require internet and let her play. When that got boring, she watched a show.
Did you know Netflix will let you download select shows to watch without internet access? We discovered this the night before we left and it was great! We downloaded Planet Earth episodes and Splash and Bubbles. This got us through the last 45 minutes!
Fly Direct (if possible)
We paid about $100 more per ticket to fly direct and we’re very glad we did. Flying is exhausting and your littles are not immune to this same feeling. Having to sit still for a long time is hard, and only having to do it once is nice! Plus, it can be very overwhelming to have to change gates with little children in tow. If you feel stressed, so does your kid!
I hope that by sharing the things I tried when flying with kids, your traveling experience a breeze! Good luck, stay calm, and safe travels.
