How to reduce the stress if you’re planning to travel with kids

Traveling with friends or a partner is very different to traveling with kids. When you’re traveling solo, you’ll stroll on to the plane, pull out your magazine, and hope no one with kids will be sitting anywhere near you.

When you’re traveling with kids, you’ll catch those glances from other passengers as they mentally beg you to keep on walking down the aisle of the plane, and hope your kids don’t ruin everyone’s flight.

When you’re traveling kid-free, you’ll rock up at your destination, grab your bag, and head straight for the hotel. You might grab a nap, or you’ll head out and grab something to eat.

When you have kids, you’ll carefully plan every aspect of your arrival around nap time and food schedules, and you’ll be hoping your flight isn’t delayed past those times.

It’s easy to see why traveling with kids is so stressful.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to reduce that stress. Here are some of the best:

Plan well in advance

Unfortunately, kids don’t allow you the luxury of ‘winging it’ when it comes to travel. Instead, you’ll need to plan everything according in advance so you can keep their routine as close as possible. If you’re going to take a family holiday to Walt Disney World, book your tickets in advance. You can purchase them online, and then you won’t need to stand at the gate and waste time in line- contributing to tired feet and whining. Instead, you can use that time to get in and see the attractions that typically have the longest lines later on in the day.

The same goes for flying- do yourself a favor and pay a little more to take a direct flight. It will be well worth it after dragging your kids and bags through security. Look for a hotel that’s nice and close to the airport, and consider hiring a car to make life easier once you arrive.

Communicate with your kids

Often, many problems can be solved by communicating with your kids. Let them know what to expect when you’ll be traveling. Start talking about it weeks in advance. Talk about how they should behave on the plane, and how they can expect to be waiting in lines sometimes. Ask them what types of activities they’d like to do at your destination- you may be surprised.

Take it easy

If you’re like most people, it’s tempting to pack in as many attractions and experiences as possible. Take what you’d like to do, and halve it. That way, you’ll have more time to spend in each place, and you’ll also have time to relax as a family.