Traveling with Kids: You Can Do it!

Traveling with kids sounds terrifying , but I promise you can do it! I totally understand the hesitation. Kids are unpredictable as heck. You are probably thinking “is it worth messing with their schedule for a trip that might be a lot of work and no fun?” The answer is YES! As long as you do several things beforehand you are destined to have a good trip. This doesn’t mean that tears won’t be shed (including your tears!), but it’s that you can overcome the inevitable and still manage to enjoy yourself. You mom all day every day and you deserve a vacation gosh darn it!

Preparation is Key:

The Checklist-

About two weeks prior to leaving  I start my checklist of things we need to pack. I write down every possible thing we need and slowly cross things off we don’t really need to take or can purchase at a nearby store at our final destination. The last thing you want is to carry too much where you find yourself overwhelmed. Pack light! Trust me coming from a person who loves to pack for the inevitable, I don’t want to be lugging several suitcases, a stroller, a child, etc. through an airport. I make sure I plan for the inevitable of course but also the realistic inevitable.  This gives me enough time to order anything online that I might need ( or want!).

The Survival Bag-

About 1 week prior to our trip I start what I call our Survival Bag. This survival bag I plan to bring on as a carry-on bag and is with me at all times. The tote bag consists of NEW small toys, books, crayons, REUSABLE stickers, window gel clings and Dani’s favorite snacks. I would also call it my negotiation bag. I make sure I pack enough snacks for the amount of time we are on our trip. I say NEW because kids get really excited about new everything and it’s a better negotiation tool to get what you want. TRUST ME. I don’t leave home without this bag. It has saved my life more times than I can count. I make sure to also have an “Emergency Stash” in this bag as well. I put the best snacks and toys in this bag. I only bring it out when the tantrums are real and nothing else is working. Trust me, kids get bored easily, so you have to step up your mom game!  You know your child best, so pack what you believe they will like. In addition, includes snacks for YOU as well. You don’t want to be hangry and throw a tantrum yourself, so take care of yourself first and you will be able to handle every situation a bit better.  I typically get all my snacks at Target and all my inexpensive toys from the dollar store or the dollar section at Target as well.

The top travel essentials that literally have saved our trip have been:

1. Travel Stroller
2. Ergo Baby
3. Survival Bag
4. Good Quality Diaper BackPack
5. Tablet
   1.  Best Tablet Case Carrier   (Must have case perfect for airplane table, train tables, or any flat surface so your kid won’t have to hold onto it.)
6. Luggage   (W all wheel swivels-holla )
7. Resuable Stickers   (Trust me, trying to take 25 one time use stickers off from your airplane table is not what you want to be doing!)
8. Sketch Board

Setting Expectations & Having a Good Attitude-

The other two major things to keep in mind is to set your expectations low and have a good attitude towards the fact that things might not go well at some point. Or things might go fantastic. Just be open to things going either way. On our first trip to Kauai, Dani was about a year old. She did wonderful on the plane but we went into this trip with our pre-kid mentality. We are going to go hiking, take the scenic route , walk around town, etc. Little did we know this was to much stimulation for Dani that it caused LOTS of tantrums and stress for us. We didn’t take time to understand that things were different now, that maybe we couldn’t go full force the first day and that we literally needed to relax. After all, that is the point of vacation , right? It’s like Danica was reminding us that we came on vacation to relax and to have patience. On the next several trips we changed our mind set and were pleasantly surprised. The world is so beautiful! You don’t want to miss out on it because the potential that your child might throw a fit in the middle of JFK with 30 minutes left to catch your next flight! Been there done that!  I don’t regret taking any trips with Danica because the memories we made are priceless.  Preparation and setting our expectations low have been what have allowed us to go out and explore.

I leave you with a travel quote that resonates with me so much:

“I travel because I’d rather look back at my life saying ‘I can’t believe I did that.’ Instead of ‘If only I had.’…”- Florine Bos

So get out of your comfort zone and travel with your kids! You won’t regret it!

Xo,

Dris

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