Two Tips for Traveling with a Toddler

My son has flown almost 40 flights and he is 2 years and four months old.  I do not recommend traveling as excessively as that, but I wanted to write a post to show that it is possible.  My son has been on one cruise with us.  He has flown with us to Hawaii, to France and to numerous states to visit grandparents and other relatives.  His little sister was with us when we recently went to France and for five months old she is racking in the trips pretty quickly too.

I have read a number of other blogs on the subject of traveling with toddlers.  I thought they were a great help and I appreciated getting ideas from others with experience before venturing out.  For this blog post, I will focus on just two tips I feel have helped us on our travels.  These tips can be used for short trips, long trips, road trips or flights.

1) Keep the bedtime routine as consistent as possible.  Whether you are changing time zones or not, when you start getting your toddler to bed, do your best to keep the routine what it would have been at home.  

For us, our son's bedtime routine involves potty time, changing into pajamas, brushing his teeth, reading two stories, talking about the day after getting into bed, saying a prayer and having either his Mommy or Daddy lay next to him for a few minutes before we leave him to fall asleep.  That involves packing a few books and his tooth brush as well as the obvious items such as his clothes and night time pull ups.  He also has a blanket that is his nap time and bedtime blanket and it is small enough that we pack it whenever we travel.

2) Plan ahead and bring a few new items/toys and be willing to use screen time for the traveling process.

I have a small bag with random objects just for traveling.  I have a couple sticker books set aside to take out just for traveling.  I have one app on my phone just to let him use for trips.  My husband usually downloads a few Thomas the Train and Daniel Tiger episodes for him as well.  At home before he turned two he basically had no screen time and since turning two he still has very little screen time.  Having something you approve of and using it to make the traveling enjoyable for everyone is definitely worth it.

Whether you have to travel to visit family or you are traveling to see new places and have fun, try these tips and I hope they help you as much as they have helped us!

Singing off...On the road again

Gina