The whole process of flying can be a stressful experience for just adults. Getting to the airport on time, checking your bags, getting through security, boarding the flight, and then hoping you get where you need to your final destination without any delays. Now, do that all with a few children in tow and you can see why some people avoid taking their children on flights. There are also many children who happily and successfully fly on airplanes every day because their parents have found little tips and tricks to help make the process easier for everyone. Here are my top 5.
- Flight Planning – This of course is always the first step and maybe one of the most important for a successful flight with your children. You know your children and their schedule and an airline flight is not the time to deviate from that schedule. I know a lot of people think red eye flights are great for kids because they will sleep. It only works if the red eye flight is 8-12 hours long and you can actually get your child to sleep. Flying across the country is about 6 hours, which is barely enough sleep for an adult to function, let alone a child. The other consideration when buying airline tickets is layovers. You have to decide if that savings of a layover is worth it to you to have to get on and off planes with children and all their stuff. To interrupt their possible naps, their comfort, to have more take offs and landings, etc. I have made that decision to save that $100.00 a ticket and take the layover option. All I remember is two kids in the middle of Chicago O’Hare airport having meltdowns, one really frustrated parent, and another parent just trying to keep all together. After that experience, the extra $100.00 per person to fly non-stop would have been totally worth it!
- Prepare your child – Airports and airplanes can be scary, busy, and overwhelming places for children. Since you can’t get through security anymore and actually take your child on a dry run through the airport you can do the next best thing, pretend! What child doesn’t love a game of pretend, especially with a parent or caregiver? Get out the suitcase, set up a security area, set up an airplane and get playing. Security can be very scary, with the metal detectors, all the luggage belts, and all the TSA agents standing around. TSA has gotten really good with kids in my experience; they don’t have to take off their shoes anymore and TSA makes it a point not to separate the child from their adult. After security the next hard place for children is the airplane itself and all the safety rules. Teach them about having to keep their seatbelt buckled during takeoff and landing (this can be a very hard one for children) and when the seatbelt sign is on, having to keep their electronic devices off until the flight attendants tell them they can be used, having to keep all bags under the seat in front of them during takeoff and landing, and explain to them why the flight attendants have to do the safety briefing at the beginning of the flight so it does not scare them. You can also take this time to go over common courtesy type behavior like not kicking the seat in front of you and indoor voices. There are also many great books that can be found about going to the airport and flying that would be fun to read. I would check your local library first.
- We all get hungry - Just like with any other trip you want to make sure your children aren’t melting down because of hunger or thirst. You can bring food with you to the airport from home but remember everything has to go through security and be scanned. Beverages may be brought in quantities of three ounces or less. Formula, breast milk, and juice for infants may be brought through security in quantities greater than 3 ounces but you do need to inform a TSA agent that you have them and they need to screened separately from your carry-on bag. For more information on that please go to the TSA website. We like to bring empty water bottles in our carry-on bag and then fill them up once we are through security. So many people have been doing this that airports are starting to install those water bottle fillers which makes things so much easier! Our favorite water bottles to travel with are the Brita filter bottles. They filter the water right through the top of the water bottle, so not only do I not have to worry too much about where I am getting the water from, but I know the water won’t have a weird taste to it. A lot of children won’t drink water that doesn’t taste like what they are used to drinking. It is so important during a flight to make sure everyone is drinking lots of water because being in an airplane can make a person very dehydrated. You don’t want to just bring any kind of food on an airplane. You want to make sure the food is easy to eat, doesn’t have a strong odor to it, and doesn’t make a huge mess when eaten. If you don’t want to bring stuff from home airports have some really great restaurants and shops in which you can find a wide variety of good healthy food to satisfy everyone in family. Before you leave I would check the airports website for a list of the restaurants and shops and map where they are, some airports are huge and spread out!
- Entertainment – Flying involves a lot of hurry up and waiting. And then of course there is the actual flying. You want to make sure you bring things to keep your children busy, but also doesn’t bother those around you. Activity books, Wikki Sticks, travel games, puzzles. Unless you know you can trust your child with these items I would stay away from stickers, markers, and play doh. Those are all things that I have personally seen make a huge mess on airplanes. Tablets are always a great things to bring so they can watch a movie or play games. Don’t forget the headphones! Many airlines now have their own app you can use while in the air to watch movies, tv shows, and listen to music. It is a wonderful thing that my kids loved but it also didn’t work all the time, so have a back- up plan and download a movie or two just in case.
- To bring a car seat or to not bring a car seat? – I think this is one of the most debated and asked questions when it comes to flying with children under 40 pounds. My personal opinion as a former flight attendant and Mom is to bring the car seat. I have two reasons. First one is safety. The simple fact is that a child is safer on the airplane in the car seat. The FAA and the airline knows this. Things happen on airplanes that make holding on to your child nearly impossible. The FAA only allows lap children because they are afraid the extra cost may push families to drive to their destination instead of flying. Flying will always be safer than driving even for a lap child. Your child is also safer in their car seat because they know to stay seated in their car seat. It is something they have been doing almost every day since they were born. They know not to unbuckle their harness and to sit properly. My second reason is comfort. Comfort for your child and for you. Your child has been taking naps in that car seat since they were born and it is familiar to them. You don’t have to worry about holding them, them squirming around, two bodies being confined to one seat, or how you are going to keep them still during takeoff and landing. To use a car seat on an airplane it must have a sticker on it that says it is approved by the FAA for airline use. Preferably it would not be wider than 16 inches and it must be placed in the window seat so as not to block the path in case of emergency. Booster seats are not allowed on airplanes. You can also use a product called CARES which stands for Child Aviation Restraint System. It is a harness that is 1 pound and can be used on the airplane to keep your child restrained. If that seat for your child under 2 just isn’t in the budget you can still bring the car seat with you to the gate and ask if there are any empty seats available on the flight. If they have empty seats, they might be able to move you around so your lap child can use their car seat during the flight. If they don’t have any seats available they will be happy to gate check the car seat for you. For more information you can visit the FAA website.
Airplanes can be a lot of fun for children. Getting to see the cockpit, the thrill of takeoff, and seeing the world from up above. And getting to see it and experience it all through their children’s eyes is a thrill for any adult. By just taking the time to do a little planning in advance and preparation will help to make sure the memories of the airplane trip will be happy for everyone.
