Longhaul with a short-fuse

[Rats]

Hi - I'm travelling to Australia in three weeks with the kids. One of them being a 2 year-old boy who will not concentrate on anything. He will only sit still for toy cars (especially pushing them through tunnels).

If anyone has ANY suggestions on what compact activity toys to take on board that would be great. Or ANY suggestions about anything to do with a not particularly cooperative kid. He's not miles ahead developmentally, so playing word games or any such like is dead in the water!

All suggestions gratefully received.

Rats x

what a daunting prospect _ I fly only short haul with mine and I still need a stiff gin afterwards! How about playdough? I take a couple of pots and then you can make tunnels for cars etc. Sticker books work OK too, as do those magic paint books you can get from smiths, where you smear on clear gunge from the pack with a sponge and the paper changes colour. I also try food - the smaller and longer to eat the better. I'm aware that all these things may only last for 5 mins at a time, and know they may be pathetic suggestions. One of my friends flew to Singapore and used a sedative - I think it was called something like 'Phenadryl'. Very best of luck!!

please tell me you're flying Singapore

they are the best by far and will probably take him off your hands for a while and shower him with toys and gifts.

That would be Phenergan - but try it out first, it can send some kids hyper.

Bets of luck to you

This is a fantastic book for taking with you. I think the Klutz books are brilliant activity books & that one is especially good if your kids like cars. I keep the cars in a little zip close bag so they don't get lost when they're done playing with them.

oh yes, I agree, that series are great. Good thinking

Yes, flying Singapore. Is that, like, REALLY good news? I hope so. Already leaping for joy like a demented deer because I found out Changi airport has TWO playgrounds. What a winner (six hour wait there). Thanks so much for your suggestions.

x

Singapore airport sounds amazing.

No other advice I'm afraid.

oh yeah. Telly addict. Cause of much self-beating... the guilt! But great news now that he's stuck to a miniscule seat for near-on 30 hours! Good thinking. Portable DVD - I'm on the case. Just checked out that Klutz book: you are a GENIUS! What a brilliant idea. Keep them rolling in. x

I do have a three year-old daughter as well. She's pretty good. But do you think dvd player each or twin-screen.... thinking arguments.... be interesting to see if I can get ds to sport earplugs. Plenty of pre-flight practice for that one, methinks. And a bottle of something high-proof for me.

Rats

I also fly to australia in 2.5 weeks with my 18 month old daughter.

We've bought a portable DVD player with a SPARE BATTERY!!! That will buy you 6 hours of viewing.

Also, get a multi-region DVD player because your DVDs will not play in Australia (we are region 2, they are region 4 - different formats). You can then hook the DVD player up to the TV in Australia if your kids want to watch their favorite stuff.

We researched DVD players and found that Shinco were generally regarded to be the best ones (I'd never heard of them). As you are short of time, this might help. The one we've bought it great, but you need to buy the bag that goes with it if you want to hook it to the airline seat in front of you. The spare battery was also bought separately.

And don't forget the plug adaptor for australia so you can charge the batteries up for the return journey. We bought ours online and they came in a few days.

You won't need your DVD player on board unless you're in the bulkhead seats as Singapore has individual seat back entertainment which we found a godsend recently (Oz and back with 3, 8 and 13 year olds). We took off from Heathrow at 10.15pm and by the time we got settled, fed etc. DD (3) was ready for bed and slept most of the way to Singapore. I think she watched Cars back to back three times on the Singapore to Sydney leg. The staff are lovely, but the toys they hand out are very bizarre! I presume you have booked children's meals? They always bring the kids' meals first which is great, but there is an incredible amount of chocolate with every meal which isn't always so good - DS2 (8) was nearly sick. Don't get too excited about the play areas at Changai - we only found one but it was a very small play frame with slide in a corner, good for half an hour or so but no more. There is lots of wide open corridor space there though for a little boy to run!

Mogwai - you're not on Singapore Air on the 16th are you?... And Snowy Delight you've made my day. We;re on the 10.15 flight too, so am desperately hoping hyperactive wriggling two year-old boy will be ready for bed. Three year-old girl pretty much a dream so she's not even in the hair-tearing equation. Not sure if we can take DVD player and my laptop, which is a necessity. So I think we'll have to play DVDs through that instead. You can buy something called a Power Traveller on board, I've discovered, which can recharge whatver - phone, pc, dvd -for another 10 hours! What are these bizarre toys on Singapore?... intrigued. Three years ago when DD was 6months I do recall some rubber beetle or something. Thanks for the warning about chocolate - I'll try to swipe it before DS sees. Wish me luck xxx

Hi Rats

No we are on BA from Heathrow at 8.20pm ish.

You'll probably see me in the terminal though....hmmm how will I recognise you?

Good you guys are brave.

We are going to Oz this summer - but it was the earliest I was prepared to consider it (ds, our youngest, will be 3.6). I am also insisting on breaking up the journey with a couple of nights stopover in Las Vegas (transferring from LA) and on the way back, a stop over at Singapore. Have also told dh I want to fly first class but since he has been quoted £19,000 for this I may have to lower my horizons on this one

Franny (where is she now btw) had a good idea. It's called grandma's handbag - buy one from a charity shop and fill it with an old lipstick, some stamps, a few clean tissues, etc etc - basically things you might find in a handbag. Apparently it keeps the lo's really interested.

handlemecarefully - if you haven't already sorted it I would highly recommend the Marina Mandarin hotel if you're stopping over in Singapore. DD (nearly 4 now) regularly cries that she wants to go back to Singapore and live in the hotel - we were only there for three nights! The roof top pool is absolutely stunning; our evening routine was to swim as night fell (for two nights we got it totally to ourselves), then out to dinner. There is a pool side bar as well. The staff were really lovely to all our children, not just the cute little blonde girl which is sometimes a problem!!! Rats - the toys were so bizarre I can't even describe them. One thing looked like the kind of backstage pass you get to hang around your neck if you're a VIP at a concert - I really couldn't work out what you were supposed to do with it. Putting anything around a small child's neck at that point didn't seem like a very clever idea to me, but maybe I just have no imagination

I tried the grandmas handbag thing on my daughters last year flying to Thailand they thought it was great (aged 2 and 4 then). another tip i had was to buy a few cheap pressies and wrap them up for them to open say one an hour, this kept them entertained for ages also. hope this helps have a fab time.

Would recommed an etch-a-sketch (or similar version thereof) also playdoh. Crayola do magic pens whcih can only be used on special magic paper so no mess or vadalism!! We found a portable dvd player invaluable on holiday with our 3 year old. (They can watch favourites instead of in- flight entertainment) Make sure you get an extra battery though as normally they only last for 2-3 hours. Treats work wonders and a few in your hand luggage will help pass the time. Books are great too...try and get some about flying and airports (I always look on amazon.co.uk) My son has got a great one called "Amazing Aeroplanes" by D.Mitton & A. Parker. They do a whole series. Sorry if I'm going over ground already covered...havent had time to read whole thread. Have a great holiday.

Anyone know if BA/Qunatas are any good, going to NZ with ds (1) and dd (3).
Also is jet lag likely to be a problem for them and is there anything I can do to help them (and me) with this?

Sorry to hijack this thread and to put another airline into the mix, but.... we are taking dd (nearly 3) and ds (18months) to LA on Air NZ in a few weeks, so if anyone has any useful tips about either this airline or to amuse slightly littler people, that would be great... Although actually, maybe in these circumstances ignorance is bliss?!

We flew to NZ on singapore airlines in 2005 when ds was 6 months old. They were more than helpful all the way through Heathrow , Singapore and NZ. We checked in over 3 hours early always got the seats we wanted, no complaints at all. Cabin staff very friendly towards us all. Stopover in Singapore was great stayed at Le Meridien for 3 days before heading onto Auckland. Really helped with jet lag, baby just slept whenever he was tired.

Hi, we recently returned from a trip to NZ.

I've got two boys 4 and 2.5 and had been dreading the flights. Our 4 yo is a real book worm and happy to sit for hours with books, so just took new books for him. But 2.5 yo is total opposite and never sits still for more than 5 mins.

We flew Virgin Atlantic and NZ Airlines. Both were fantastic. Very helpful and had packs for the kids - although the toys were a bit out of age range for ours, they just loved the idea that they had 'presents' from the crew.

I would also highly recommend the Klutz book with little cars/trucks, mentioned previously. I found this just before the trip and it was a godsend. Both my boys loved this book and it kept them quiet for ages.

I also took some small puzzle games eg. matching pair cards, etch-a-sketch, dinky cars, and sticker books, but actually had too much and didn't need to use them all.

The in flight entertainment on both airlines were excellent. Both had loads of animated films and TV shows eg. Hi5, Barney, etc. and computer games. The only thing was that the 2.5 yo wouldn't wear the headsets, but he was happy to watch without sound. Also, the call button for cabin crew is on the controller, so my two were constantly pressing for help by mistake. The crew were very patient though - must get used to it!

Meals were brought out quickly (or held back at times when they boys had fallen asleep and brought out later), but I also was a bit surprised by high sugar content of meals. I would intercept the meals and remove some of the sweet treats/drinks before the kids noticed.

We also whiled away the odd half an hour by wandering up and down the aisles and visiting the toilet, just to stretch their legs, which helped.

In general I would also mention that my two slept loads more than I thought they would and as a result didn't really suffer much from jet lag. We had a few disturbed nights of sleep from them, actually worse coming back, (which we did via San Francisco) than going out (via Tokyo). I'm not sure if this was to do with excitement of holiday versus being back home, or if direction of travel makes a diference. Anyway, dh and I found it much harder to recover than they did . . .

Hope the experience is as positive for you!