Visiting parents and family halfway across the world this Christmas after FOUR years. Me, spouse, 7 yo and 2 yo who’s nearly 3. 7 yo super well travelled as has always gone to my conferences and business travel in the before-times. But ……Needless to say the 3 yo was born at start of first lockdown and has never been anywhere near a plane!
we have 1 BIG flight, 1 3-4 hour layover and 1 regional flight. We are really scared that other passengers will hate us by the end! What do we need to pack for the journey do you think?
so far I’ve got -
- Both tablets fully charged
- Downloaded episodes of stuff they like
- Seating me and spouse between them to avoid fighting over resources. This does lead to dilemma that they will develop preference for daddy/mummum at the same time and cause trouble anyway :/
- Those puzzle word search type books for DS who’s 7. He loves maths and is ace with that sort of thing so comic/puzzle type things maybe from WH Smith
- What do we need for DD who is nearly 3? Crayons? Stickers? Have completely forgotten what we did with DS as toddler when he travelled with us!
- Infant calpol
- Spare attachment objects for DD (her blue blanket if lost will lead to murder and mayhem)
- Snacks -they eat constantly and I am dying at the thought of massive bags of snacks and crumbs everywhere. What snacks would you suggest?
- DD Out of nappies for a year now, though wears pulls ups at night. Should we put her in pull ups for the flight/airport? It’s not going to somehow make her regress to nappies suddenly is it?
I had a nightmare last night that we’d showed up with all of the above but with none of the passports and home country sent us back to UK.
To think - in the before times, we traveled to all manner of places for my work with portable baby/toddler DS without batting an eyelid. I’ve done talks with him in a sling! And now / post covid - despite having solo travelled for work - travelling with them is making me feel like deer in headlights.
also - we currently have the issue that they both have a MASSIVE humongous preference for Dadddyyyyy. Both spouse and I are exhausted with this - because it’s unsustainable and they scream murder if Daddddddyyyyyyy isn’t the one feeding/cleaning/playing/reading. I can see this might be extra inconvenient on this 18 hour each way journey.
sorry for essay - thanks for help - and I almost don’t want to go and see my family after 4 years!