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56 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014 www.familyholidayandleisure.com

flyingwith childrenThe thought of flying with children can be either a fun or a daunting prospect, generally determined by the age of the offspring concerned. To help with your next trip, we asked some experienced parents to share tips about flying with children of all ages. By Alison Budge

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5958 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014www.familyholidayandleisure.com www.familyholidayandleisure.com

advice

T he holiday is planned, the excitement has been building for weeks, and finally the big day is

here. You head off to the airport, cars packed to the hilt with luggage for the whole family, car seats, excited and squirmy kids, and granny too for last-minute goodbye kisses. And then the flight begins …

Flying with children can be either fun or completely daunting, generally determined by the age of your children. The fun part comes from experiencing airports, airplanes and the associated processes through the eyes of a youngster, where everything is simply thrilling. As adults we often bemoan how tiring and mundane the flights can be, and that they are simply a means to the destination. For children they are often the most exciting part!

Flying with teenagersI travelled with two teenagers to England over the Christmas holidays, and while they are locally well travelled by road, long-haul flights are special and incredibly exciting for them. We always aim to make our children travel savvy, so we let them lead the way and work out our path through the airport. For this they need to read and look for details. We encouraged them to find the flight number on the ticket, use the self-service check-in machines, find where we needed to pass through security checks, and find our boarding gate. Although these are small things, what is important for us is that our two see how simple travelling is; it is simply a question of knowing where to access the information they need. We wanted them to experience first-hand how easy it is to find that information.

Once on board they of course figured out how to use the TV and earphones while my husband and I were still buckling up. A winner for them was that they had brought their own earphones – much better quality that those supplied on the plane – and were engrossed all night and all flight in the movies and series on offer. (British Airways offer a parental lock which lets you block programmes you don’t want your children to see.) We anticipated this continuous TV

watching, so reduced their carry-on luggage to a few toiletries, a change of underwear in case of flight delays, and something to read.

There were small aspects of the flight that we adults simply took for granted that our kids would know, like being allowed to remove shoes and socks at night (maybe that was a blessing with a teenage son around). We didn’t realise that we needed to ask specifically for eye masks: this may have encouraged more sleep, as the light and activity throughout the night did distract my two from getting much sleep.

Corrina Everitt adds that when travelling with her teens she makes sure that they have a good book, a challenging game like Story

Cubes (which is tiny and only requires imagination), and that the handheld gaming consoles are charged up enough to get them through the waiting around at airports. She has made sure that her children understand that flying involves waiting and delays, but nonetheless they all love the journey and excitement of heading off.

“One of the greatest gifts we can pass onto our children is the love of travel,” says Corrina. “Flying with children is not always fun – but if you approach it positively and remember where you’re headed to or why you’re doing it, then it’s all worth it.”

Flying with young childrenSarah Dalrymple seems quite the pro at this.

She and engineer husband Mike have relocated countries for work quite regularly, and have three children who always travel with them. “Having travelled both internationally and locally with all of my children from a very young age I think I may have a few half-decent tips for any travelling family! My eldest started her long-haul travels at 12 months old, my middle child did three international trips before he was 6 months old, and at the same age my third child did a 3-day marathon trip from Trinidad and Tobago to New York, to London, and then to South Africa. And we are still travelling!”Sarah sticks to the following basic steps:• Make sure you all shower and dress in

clean clothes before you leave home.• Pack a facecloth, toothbrushes, toothpaste

and Vicks - a little bit under their noses ensures no airborne illnesses will spoil their holiday.

• Always pack a little backpack for each child which they can carry, containing pencils, a new magazine, journal or workbook, a water bottle (keep filled at all times), a change of clothing and a book.

• Make sure you have a lunch box in each backpack with titbits like a fruit roll, a sandwich, box of cereal, crisps, apple, lollipop, something chewy, dried fruit, etc. And make sure you have fluids – a dehydrated and hungry child is awful!

• Have a meal before you travel. A meal at the airport before flying means your child will not be hungry until the aeroplane meal finally arrives. If they are fed and have something to drink, they can snuggle up and start sleeping as soon as you take off. If they are still awake for their meal, that is a bonus for them! Always order a child’s meal when booking your tickets and seat allocations. This will ensure that their meal arrives before everyone else’s.

• Before they go to sleep make sure they have washed their faces and had their teeth brushed – they really do sleep better.

• Relax – it is a family holiday, and you should all be having fun!

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60 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014 www.familyholidayandleisure.com

What the airlines offerWe suggest looking at the web pages of the airline you will be using before your trip. Read about what is offered to families, and make use of their services. Some services require pre-booking and others don’t. For example, Emirates offer priority boarding for families travelling with young children, and on British Airways when you travel with an infant under 2 years who won’t be travelling in a seat of their own, you can reserve a seat for yourself and everyone in your party (free of charge) as soon as you’ve made your booking.

Most airlines offer a limited number of bassinets, so make sure you book your holiday early and specify if you need a bassinet for your tiny person (there is normally a weight limitation of about 11-12 kg). Some airlines also offer an adapted baby seat, which you ask the crew for once on board, making their flight (and yours) a little more comfortable. Activity packs offered by the airlines bring much excitement, help keep children entertained, and are great mementos for them once home again.

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Velia and Mike Duncan also used many of these tips when they travelled from Cape Town to Johannesburg recently with their 4-year-old daughter to visit family for the weekend. “We started talking about the trip way in advance to set expectations and also to up the excitement levels,” said Velia. “We flew at night, so we started the journey with supper at the airport, including a chocolate milkshake as a treat to set the mood. We also made sure that Grace had her own carry-on luggage (just like mom and dad) that she could pull along. The whole time we explained that all of the things that we were doing and seeing were just like what happens when either of us travels to Joburg for business, to give her an idea of what happens when we’re away.

“Once on board, Grace’s curiosity and love for rules also helped to fill the time: buckling up, checking the tray tables, opening and closing the window blind, browsing the safety instructions, and making up explanations for every bump and tilt of the plane. Once in the air we had great fun seeing how small the cars, mountains and rivers were, watching the sun set, and getting down to a session with an activity book before prepping for landing.”

Supermum Di Stonefield faced flying solo with three young boys on a long-haul international flight. “It was not easy, but we did it. The flight crew tried to help as much as possible whenever I needed them, and loads of passengers who saw me alone with three kids offered me help. This was so heartfelt, and really appreciated when I needed to use the rest room, for getting on and off the plane, and in the airport terminals.”

The food on the trip seemed to pose a few challenges for Di. “What was awful was landing in London and not being able to find whole milk for the kids to drink. They don’t like skim milk. On board all of the kiddies’ meals were great. The spaghetti and meatballs made a mess, but the kids loved it. They were a bit heavy on the sweets - a tad too much sugar, what with Jelly Tots, Kit Kats and then chocolate cake for dessert.”

Fortunately for Di, on landing in London they found some play areas at the airport, which were great for the boys to get rid of some of their pent-up energy. “After sleeping and being confined to sitting in a

chair for 11 hours, they were ready to play. It was exhausting for me though; I just wanted to close my eyes and drop to the floor.”

That was only the first leg of their trip: they still had a second flight to Los Angeles. “We chose two night flights as the boys would want to sleep at that time, and it was so great that each seat came with its own little TV screen. My boys spent time watching various programmes over and over when they were not sleeping.

“I did not medicate my three boys at all, so I guess I got lucky this trip while we were flying. They were all very well behaved. I packed snacks, toys, cards and treats in case they started to get fussy, and carried extra clothing for each. (Fortunately, as two of them vomited and one wet himself.) Another thing I noticed at the airports was that they had little or no baby stuff for sale. What about extra nappies, formula and wet wipes? Airports should sell those essentials for parents to buy. I carried around what felt like boatloads of wipes for the kids, for all of the dirt and sticky stuff they got into!”

Di sums up her experiences well when she says: “Since my epic journey from Cape Town to Los Angeles in California and home again, I know I can do anything!”

Flying with infantsCath and Andy Duncan flew with their Zola for the first time when he was the tender age of 4 months. “We were lucky I guess, in that Zola didn’t really challenge us. Although, even if you have a generally calm and contented baby, you never know how the trip to the airport and the flight will go!” says Cath. “As we needed to take a diaper bag as hand luggage, we kept our other hand luggage as small as possible to ensure that we had our hands free for carrying and tending to Zola.”

Together she and Andy decided to leave their bassinet and car seat at home and rather to hold their little guy on their laps. “This made it easy for us to adjust his position depending on whether he wanted to sleep, sit, drink his bottle, or play during the flight.” Tips to other parents travelling with infants: “Remember to take plastic bags with you so you can easily dispose of dirty nappies, and be extra friendly to the

people around you, and to the crew – you never know when you may need their understanding or their help!”

From past experience Corrina suggests asking the air steward to warm the milk for your baby almost as soon as you get onto the flight, so that he/she has something to swallow and suck on during take-off. This is when babies’ ears are most affected by the air pressure, causing them to cry because their ears hurt. Having a dummy or their bottle eases this, and keeps everyone settled. Do the same for landing.

She adds that it is important to always take a spare change of clothes for both your child and yourself when you fly. “Amy throwing up all over me on a flight 2 hours out from our destination taught me that one. The funny part was seeing the faces of our fellow passengers as all three of us went to the loo so that I could change into my husband’s t-shirt. I’m not sure what they thought we were up to with a baby in tow, but the looks were priceless!”