Flying to Oz with toddler and 4 month old

[Chloris33]

That'll be us at Christmas, as all DH's family are in Australia. Appreciate this is a bit specific, but looking for advice for anyone who's done an antipodean trip with a toddler (ours will be almost 3 years). My question is whether to power on through the two flights, effectively doing the whole journey in one go (22 hours), or whether to break it up and stay the night in Asia. Not interested in doing an Asian holiday - too much for this time, but just a stopover for a night's 'sleep' - not sure anyone will be sleeping, but could be a rest from the plane. My DH is generally in favour of doing the whole journey in one go, with just a couple of hours to walk around the airport in Asia between flights...

I recently flew to NZ with my 2 year old. I'm not going to lie, the flights were hell with him climbing all over the place and very little sleep.
We elected to just power on through so we just had a quick change in Dubai and Melbourne. We were also going to visit family so saw no point dragging it out and staying somewhere we had no interest in as it would take time out of our family visit. So I would say just take plenty of toddler entertainment on the plane and get it over with!

We do an Aus to Norway trip regularly, and will be doing Aus to UK this Christmas. We do two flights, no significant stopover (this time, our stopover will be 2 hours in Singapore).

I think, theoretically, breaking up the flight seems like a good idea. But really you're just faffing about, and dragging out the inevitable. I've done it both ways and, practically speaking, it's better to just get it over with as quickly as possible.

We last did this with a 2.5 year and 14mth old. I agree with your DH about powering through without a break. Try to book the overnight flight out of the UK. From memory Emirates usually do a flight out around 8/9pm. While they might be a nightmare in the airport, they'll probably sleep.

Emirates were great with kids - goody bags, pictures, sneaky chocolate bars from the crew 🙄

We let them watch endless TV, and had plenty of books etc.

It honestly wasn't as bad as I expected!

Yeah power through. And book with Emirates if you can. Our air steward took toddlers off to show them round the plane to give parents a break. They have kids packs and are generally great.

Plus if you stayed over in Asia for a night, there's no guarantee the toddler would sleep at the right time with all the time mix up and excitement. I'd just get it over with and make sure you have a large G&T available at the end

Another vote for push on through. The extra planning for a stopover would have been beyond me when mine were little. The big benefit of trips to visit family is that essentially you have someone ready to "pick up the pieces" at the other end. And then collapse and recover over whatever time it takes.

The little one will probably be relatively straightforward; I did London to Sydney with my eldest at 3/4 months and it wasn't too bad really. With a nearly-3, you will probably get some value from the on-board entertainment system but it might be worth researching what is on, and which headphones work with the airline you end up with, and whether you want to take your own.

The youngest mine were when I did the trip with 2 of them, was 15 months / nearly 4. The little one was pretty good to be honest, our main attention had to be on the older one who was convalescing from serious illness and got back ache sitting in a car longer than 20 minutes ... Memories of finally getting her to sleep on the floor then being told we had to move her :( [that was a trip that would have been cancelled as bad timing if it hadn't been for her uncle's wedding!]

Best wishes and enjoy the trip when it comes! [I'm procrastinating packing for our return flight tomorrow, as it happens ... supposed to be finally emptying my bedroom as this house is going to be sold soon like it or not... Children now old enough that I've been selecting from my Dad's old suits things that will fit the youngest!]

Another vote for push on through. The extra planning for a stopover would have been beyond me when mine were little. The big benefit of trips to visit family is that essentially you have someone ready to "pick up the pieces" at the other end. And then collapse and recover over whatever time it takes.

The little one will probably be relatively straightforward; I did London to Sydney with my eldest at 3/4 months and it wasn't too bad really. With a nearly-3, you will probably get some value from the on-board entertainment system but it might be worth researching what is on, and which headphones work with the airline you end up with, and whether you want to take your own.

The youngest mine were when I did the trip with 2 of them, was 15 months / nearly 4. The little one was pretty good to be honest, our main attention had to be on the older one who was convalescing from serious illness and got back ache sitting in a car longer than 20 minutes ... Memories of finally getting her to sleep on the floor then being told we had to move her :( [that was a trip that would have been cancelled as bad timing if it hadn't been for her uncle's wedding!]

Best wishes and enjoy the trip when it comes! [I'm procrastinating packing for our return flight tomorrow, as it happens ... supposed to be finally emptying my bedroom as this house is going to be sold soon like it or not... Children now old enough that I've been selecting from my Dad's old suits things that will fit the youngest!]

I did Lon to Syd with a 2 year old and 1 year old. Like others, I'm not going to lie - it was exhausting. We went Qantas - the issue with their flight path was they fly to Dubai (8-9 hours from Lon) from 10pm - great. But then the longest leg is the second leg of 12-14 hours which was then when the kids were awake but grumpy. If I could have chosen a flight that had the longest leg first I would have. The 1 year old was easy - just slept on us but the 2 year old was climbing the walls - not quite old enough to enjoy iPad/tv for long stints. And like someone else said he just wanted to lay on the floor which is a big no. I didnt sleep at all on the flights. We went straight through - they were jet lagged and took ages to come online with the time zones once we got there. I think a stop over just would have prolonged the inevitable. If you can line someone (family etc) up to help with the children once you get there I would highly recommend that. Good luck

Watching as I'm doing this next year! Great tips

Having done this with a 4 month old, make sure you get the sky cots booked for each leg of your flight, and use a sling - makes airport time so much easier. We used one of our carry on bags as purely a child/nappy bag too so it was easy to just grab on the plane for nappy changes.

Really interesting that everyone votes for powering on through -- that's good to know, thanks. Our help is a bit mixed when we arrive - we'll be staying with my DH's stepmother, who is disabled and not able to be very active, and his Dad, who is sweet but not very practical/hands on. So the practical stuff will be up to us, however, they'll certainly give our toddler heaps of attention, which will help. I think the flights with him are going to be an absolute nightmare as he is very restless at the best of times, and seems to need a minimal amount of sleep. But, deep breath!

Honestly, just get it all over and done with. You just prolong the agony by doing a stopover! It's very hard, but when it's done, it's done (until home time anyhow!) .
We did debate doing a stop over, but then figured it's a whole other environment to try and get them settled into.
Lots of stickers, stories, small games. Use the seat as a table and have toddler standing on the floor so they are moving around a bit more.
We went for the back row of seats rather than bulkhead as in bulkhead the armrests don't go up... back of the plane felt like there were less people around, and close to the loo! If you are on one of the swanky new planes, they also have tonnes of space behind for playing.
Good luck!

We did a night flight to Singapore, 2 nights in Singapore and a night flight to Sydney. Kids were awake the first and last hour of each flight, slept in between and the two nights and busy days in Singapore meant that we had no jet lag on arriving in Sydney. Recently did the same from Sydney to U.K. but stopped in Abu Dhabi. Again, no jet lag at all.

Personally, I would power through. I think getting off a plane, leaving the airport, dragging all your shit to a hotel, unpacking, repacking, and getting back to the airport will only draw out the misery. One and done is my motto.

We do thus regularly with two small kids. If we stop, then we stop for a few days. Actually we do usually stop for a few days to wind down and enjoy time with just the four of us. Helps with the jet lag too.

Probably wouldn't stop for just one night though.