In less than a week we’re going to fly to Greece to attend my cousin’s wedding. We are getting really excited, as we’re staying for a week for a family holiday. It’s going to be our first time flying with the kids, and I’ve been busy preparing everything to make a smooth journey (or as smooth as it can get with a three and four-year-old).

Flying somewhere is a very long and tedious process, filled with waiting periods. We have to drive two hours to Munich airport, there we have to wait for check-in, then for boarding, then for take-off and then we have to get a rental car and get to the hotel. Jakob calculated that we will be on our feet (or actually various thousand miles above feet level) for about ten hours.

Ten hours! That’s a long time for a child (and for an adult, too). There are tons of great articles on how to entertain your kids on airplanes, what to do, what to avoid, etc. so I am not going to build on that with generic advice, but rather with ideas I collected from experience and knowing my kids. I call it my SURVIVE guide for holidays, as I have one idea for each starting letter, so let’s see:

S-omething new to keep them entertained

When we went on our first beach holiday in Italy with the car, we had the luxury of bringing many toys with us to keep the kids entertained. Now, flying with a plane, we obviously can’t do that, but we also wouldn’t, as the kids didn’t play once with their toys. There was too much going on around, and they were already bored with them, knowing them from home anyway. The next year, going to Italy again, we learnt from our mistake and instead of bringing a barrage of stuff, we barely brought anything and took them shopping for new toys in Italy. It was a big hit and kept them entertained for much longer.

Going on an airplane, I won’t indulge in toys this time, but I am buying each of them a new Tiptoi book, as well as activity book for the plane and beyond. Admittedly, once in Greece, I doubt they will be interested in toys anyway, as there is a big pool, the sandy beach and lots of family to meet.

U-se milestone treats

Travelling is very exhausting and long for children, particularly with a plane. As I’ve written before, there are just so many stages to the journey. So instead of saying, “once we get there, we can do this and that”, I will set out milestone treats they can look forward to. For example, “once we arrive at the airport, you can have a doughnut”, once we’re waiting to board we can play I spy with my little eye”, etc. My kids do a lot better with short milestone treats than a big treat at the end.

R-elax, take it easy

The journey with the kids will be exhausting, there is no beating around the bush. But something exhausting can still be enjoyable (think, Yoga). The key to doing such long journeys for us (so far only in the car, admittedly), is to relax ourselves as much as possible, bring in as much humour as possible and take it easy on yourself and the kids. Arguing and shouting around only makes the mood worse and no one benefits from it. And that also means relaxing the rules. Your kids watch a show during the flight because it keeps them quiet? Do it! They’ve already watched a movie in the car because you were getting upset with them asking every 30 seconds when we’re finally there? So what! It’s a hard day for them and you, make it as relaxed and easy as possible and take as much screen time, doughnuts, ice creams and games as possible to make it enjoyable.

V-alidate their feelings as much as possible (and your own)

As already established, long journeys are tough for kids and it will probably make them act in undesirable ways. They might be more clingy, whingy, fighting with each other, nagging, etc. I understand it can be hard to be the calm, collected adult we aim (and often fail) to be in these situations, but understanding that it’s a huge, challenging thing for such little people can help to guide them through it. My daughter in particular is a very angsty child who needs lots of validation and support in new situations. Knowing this, I can accept that I will have her clinging to me a lot of the time, presumably. However, it is also important to know my boundaries and divide and conquer with Jakob if I get overwhelmed, so we can take breathers in between too.

I-nstall monitoring apps on your phone

This is one for when you actually are on holiday. When we went to my other cousin’s wedding in a hotel, we realised that our baby monitor didn’t have enough range (they tend to have very little range), so we video-called on Whatsapp and put one phone in the room they were sleeping and took the other with us. While Whatsapp is a good-enough option, there are apps available which can do just that for you, and you don’t have to worry about range. That being written, you should of course never leave your child and go somewhere so far away that you can’t be there in a quick minute.

Our hotel has a bar and restaurant just under the rooms, and I can’t wait to enjoy a drink with Jakob while the kids are sleeping, and thanks to our phones, we can know for sure that they are safe in bed. We still haven’t decided yet which one to use, so if you have a recommendation, please leave them in the comments, or I will update this blog post once we have downloaded one and tried it out.

V-enture into adventure

The most fool-proof way to get my kids to do things is to make it playful. Almost everything in our house has spoken at some point. The jacket lying on the floor, complaining about not being hung up on a hook (“oh my, someone will step on me, what am I going to do!?); the toothbrush being Mrs Toothbrush who is hungry for critters and much more. When they are reluctant to go to the bathroom for bedtime, I make it a race, and the soft toys help us at any turn.

Their first time on a plane will be exciting and I want to make it as playful as possible to take the edge off. The airplane can be a big playground we get to explore. They can each take a small soft toy to cuddle, and we will become adventurers, racing, hiding and cuddling when necessary. You might feel a little awkward doing such a silly-billy thing at first, but in the end the playful route makes it easier for everyone.

E-arplugs help for flying, swimming and sleeping

I got high-quality earplugs for myself and the kids. As I tend to get an earache on airplanes, I decided to try out earplugs this time. I got the Alpine FlyFit plugs and so far they feel really nice in my ear. They are reusable and also great taking the edge off when you feel overwhelmed by the noise your kids make and want to tune it down. For the kids I got the Alpine Pluggies for kids to protect their ears during the flight. But we can also use them for swimming, so their ears don’t get so wet, or for sleeping when we go to the wedding and the music will be loud.

And that’s my SURVIVE guide for going on holiday in less than a week. I will let you know how it went and which tips really paid off and which, if any, didn’t or need to be adapted. Have a lovely day, evening, morning, wherever you are!

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