what to do before a long haul flight?

[ElliotW]

Morning all :)

We're off to America next week to see family, and I was just looking for advice on what to do with the kids (aged 5 and 3) before the flight. We have to leave the house at 7pm and the flight leaves just after 1am so we have a full day to occupy them!

DH suggested sending them to school and nursery as normal, or one of us taking them swimming or something so they are tired out and sleep. Then we thought that maybe a lazy day would be better so they are not overtired and hyper.

Any thoughts?

It depends how active they usually are, but some running around and wearing them out would definitely be a good thing, though if they have to stay up so late past normal bedtimes for the flight, you don't want to overdo it. I'd be inclined to send them to school so that I could get on with all the last minute packing and organising...

Can you gradually make bedtimes a little later each night between now and then to ease the transition?

I'll give that a try, thank you. I was hoping to do the bath routine as normal and have them travel in their jammies, so that would work out quite well.

They are normally always knackered by bed time anyway, which is why I don't want to add the excitement of flying and holidays onto that! I might even just send them for the morning.

EW

1am!!. Is that really correct?. Do you actually mean 1pm.

Would keep the day of departure as low key as possible whatever you decide to do.

No, 1am- check in starts at 9pm and it takes about an hour and a half to get to the airport.

Sorry, I have just reread my OP and that was worded badly, I meant that we had the full day before leaving to fill :)

I'd definitely send them to school as usual, and use the peace at home to get everything ready to go. It's really hard to pack with children underfoot - mine would be driving me nuts asking me whether it was time to go yet if we did anything else.

Plus, for the 5 yr old, why take him out of school when you don't need to?

Send them to school/nursery & the older one will probably get worn out with the excitement there (& school gets to be the ones to calm them down if they do get hyper ) leaving you to get on with last minutes. As you've got quite a drive to the airport, can you try to encourage them to have a sleep in the car & tell them it's so they can stay up a bit later. That way they have a bit of a rest & will hopefully cope better with a late flight. If they sleep in the car, let them have a run around at the airport & hopefully they'll zonk on the plane. I'd probably be inclined not to get them ready for bed til just before you board unless you think they'll sleep at the airport, then just try to get them to sleep as soon as you board. The later they go to sleep, hopefully the easier it'll be to get them onto US time !

Enjoy!

Thank you all :) I'm getting very excited now.

I'm just going to send them to school/ nursery and have a quiet word with the teacher beforehand to warn them. It's the last day before the school holidays so they'll just be making Easter bonnets or something (please God let there be no E-numbers!)

Hopefully someone else can advise me: should I give them a bigger lunch than usual and a snack dinner? I do not want to cook before flying! (I'm sorry I'm such a worrier!)