Lies About Traveling With Kids Revealed!
Lies About Traveling With Kids Revealed
If you keep your child up or miss a nap before a flight, they'll sleep the whole time.
While this may seem like a great idea, it'll backfire on you more often than not. Instead of bringing a well rested child onto an airplane, you'll bring your child's evil twin. Flights are exciting and the seats aren't as comfortable as their bed. It's not as easy for them to fall asleep while flying, so it's better to set them up for success by bringing them to the airport well rested.
You will never be the parent with the crying child.
My husband and I promised we would never be those parents... Until, it happened to us. Our baby cried for the whole three hour flight. Flights and little ears are not a good mix. If you're not really careful and have your child suck on a bottle or nurse while taking off and landing, their ears will get extremely irritated. Even if you do it all right, their ears could rebel against them and cause the screaming you feared. It's ok. We've all been there and people around you can suck it up and deal or get off the plane... Wait, I guess they just have to suck it up and deal.
You can prevent your child from kicking the seat in front of you.
Kids are squirmy by nature. Think about how wiggly they are at home. It's difficult to get them to sit still for dinner or even their favorite cartoon. How can you expect them to sit still in a little, itty bitty airplane seat for a few hours? You can have them try and keep their feet down or sit with their legs crossed, but it's inevitable. They will kick the seat in front of them at least a few times. All you can do is audibly talk to them about how they wouldn't like someone kicking their seat and hope for an empty seat in front of you.
You packed everything you'll need.
You're going to spend hours thinking about what to bring, making checklists, asking people to run you through lists, asking your kids if they packed x, but you'll forget something. You'll forget to plan for your child's inconvenient bloody nose on the plane, their blow out diaper in the terminal, or their un-washable marker fiasco. You're not a mind reader and kids are chaos at all times.
You'll never judge a fellow parent traveler.
You've probably promised you'd never be the parent to judge another fellow parent. Lie. The moment will happen when all of your children are quiet on the plane (even if just for a brief moment) and you'll hear another child. They will be freaking out or crying and your first thought will be, "Can you shut your child up!" You just got yours quiet and don't want anyone messing with your groove. Then it's going to bite you in the bum because as soon as theirs go quiet, yours will start up. Then you'll feel bad you ever judged another person...maybe... or you'll blame them for your misfortune.
You'll sleep on the plane.
I don't even think I really need to debunk this one. If you actually think you'll sleep on the plane with your child you're either crazy or in denial. I support you either way, but come on. Really? If you fall asleep you're just asking for trouble. Your sweet and innocent little child could slip out of their chair while you're asleep and cause complete chaos or completely embarrass you on the plane. For real, everyone already knows you're the one with the kids... Do you really want anymore attention on yourself? Just keep one eye open. --Traveling with kids can be straight up exhausting, but I'll leave you with one truth... You and your caffeinated self will get through it.. eventually.