Travelling to Aus with 3 very young children

[Bubblegum20]

My husband and I are considering taking our children on holiday to Sydney for a few weeks they'll be 4, 2 and 1 years old when we fly. Has anyone flown with 3 young children this far, is it manageable? We've done much shorter flights that have been fine. We've never been to Australia to see my brother, we've only seen him when his flown back to London, which is usually every other year.

We have travelled with 2 young kids but didn't take youngest one until she was 3.5; the air pressure really affected her ears on take off and landing when she was under 3. we always done it with a stop over. At least a night or 2 on the way there and back.

it is doable but I think it will be hard with a 2 and 1 year old. We have done lots of long haul as DH is Aussie and I am from another continent outside Europe. DD1 coped better when she was a baby,DD2 was harder but a good traveller now. Remember the first time with a 4 and 14 months old long haul, I was exhausted had to pass DD2 to DH.

I will not got for less than 3 weeks as the jet lag is another problem.

Good luck. Hope you have a nice holiday if you decide to go. I couldn’t imagine doing it with 3 kids under 5. 2 it is just about manageable as there are 2 adults.

I was going to say wait a few years (I found it much easier when the kids were 4+), but to see your brother, just do it.
Yes, it will be a tough 24 hours, but family is worth it.

We've just done the journey to New Zealand and back to visit family with three children but our youngest is 7. We also did the trip years ago with just our eldest when she was 2 nearly three and I was pregnant. This time was easy as the children were older and we broke the trip up both ways with stopovers. I'd say it depends on how you think your eldest will cope on the plane? Of they're likely to sit mostly happily and be entertained with TV shows/films etc and snacks then you'd probably manage okay as your younger two are likely to need pretty much 1:1 attention each on the plane a lot of the time. It is a long slog on the plane that's for sure but doable. When we went when our eldest was 2 she coped really well but by the end had totally had enough and got a bit upset, sore ears and exhaustion needed some good distraction! We swore we would never fly directly without a stopover with kids again! But it was worth it, we had a great trip and enjoyed seeing family, to visit your brother I'm sure it would feel worth the journey. Another year might make all the difference for the older two to be more content on the plane though.

I wouldn't do it for a holiday, but see family it's a grin & bear it!!

I did it with a 20 month old and a three year old. I couldn't imagine doing it with three. The timing wasn't great but my husband was on a once in a lifetime sabbatical for three months and we spent an amazing month in Australia. But I would have waited if possible so my kids could remember it properly as much as easier travelling.

I did it on my own to Oz with 3 under 5, two of whom weren’t walking and it was extraordinarily difficult. It was really the logistics of it all though, managing loo trips and the luggage etc given I was on my own.

We also did lots of long haul trips with the two of us and 3 small children and I didn’t find that bad at all. Just tiring.

I have done that leg and longer with three preschoolers of the same age. It was fine. Everyone thought we were crazy and it would be terrible. It wasn't.

Every person I know who has tried this with kids under 5 described it as ’the worst day of their life’. They enjoyed being in Oz once there although said the jet lag with kids is very hard. I just couldn’t think of anything worse, spending all that money to undergo that stress for that long, then feel utterly exhausted dealing with ratty jet lagged kids at the other end. A whole day flying is too long when kids don’t understand, there’s literally nowhere for them to go, they can’t be running up and down the aisles, it’s cruel to expect them to be effectively pinned down for that long when they’re too little to be distracted by screens for any length of time. Braver people appear to manage it but not my idea of fun. If family moved away I would expect the onus be on them to come back if they wanted to see relatives. Save this trip for age 4+ unless you’re extremely laid back :)

I have done 12h alone with a 4 y.o and a 1 y.o and it was fine, until the youngest developed a vomiting virus two hours into the homeward flight and projectiled all over me/other passengers. I ended up sitting in the toilet with them trying to aim for the sink 😜 obviously that was unprecedented but I’d always advise people to plan for gastric catastrophe and bring another adult/A LOT of wipes/clothes/soap/plastic bags without holes/ £10 notes for the people in surrounding seats.

We used to be able to use medised to make them doze off. I mean, to manage their ear pain.

id never have managed it without medised. I realise thoughts about drugging children into submission for travel purposes have changed!

Weirdly, our children whether 2, 7 or 13 have never really seemed to struggle woth jet lag toooooo much going to NZ. I think they've been so tired after the flights that so long as we can keep them distracted and awake until after 6pm when we arrive they have always slept for about 12hrs straight and got into the new time zone fairly easily 🤷‍♀️ just lucky maybe.

blimey I would not do this unless you literally had to. I'd save your pennies until they are a bit older when a. they can be distracted by screens and b. will remember it.
Friends I know who have taken kids to Oz/Nz said the flight was torture but even worse was the kids inability to change their body clocks to deal with the time changes once there.