Jet Setting with Small Children: Seven Tips to Save Your In-Flight Sanity

Remember the other week when I was having a fit about flying with Moanna by myself? I was on the verge of needing a paper bag to breathe in! Yeah. Turns out, not-so-bad. There was no puking or major temper-fits (from either of us). In fact, it was one of Moanna’s favorite parts of the trip. She was so excited to ride in an airplane that she burst through my door at 3:30 in the morning screaming “MOMMY! It’s time to get up! We need to go get on an airplane!” We didn’t have to be awake for another hour! If you leave off that little mishap, the whole flying with Moanna was a success.

In my moment of distress, many of you shared your experiences and expert advice. I used many of your ideas on our trip, and they saved my sanity. Thank you! I am so grateful for the advice that I wanted to share what made our airplane adventure an enjoyable experience. I hope these suggestions help you on your next flight with the kiddos.

* Prepare your child for security Security was the most stressful part of the entire journey. While we were jammed inline I talked to Moanna about taking off her shoes, putting everything we had with us in bins and walking through a special door. I explained that all of this was necessary to make sure we were safe on the plane. This next part is tres important! Prepare your child to speak to the security workers. They want to make sure that your child is your child. I had no idea that the security staff would question Moanna while they were checking my ID and our boarding passes. They asked Moanna her name, how old she was, where she was going and who I was. Moanna looked at me with terrified eyes, the security worker looked at me with raised eyebrows and I nearly passed out. For a moment I thought we were going to be taken to an isolation room, but after telling Moanna it was OK to speak to him, she quietly answered his questions. Moanna is almost never afraid to speak to someone in public, why she froze when it was important for her to speak to strangers, who knows.

* The airport is like a carnival Take the train. Buy a special snack. Use the moving sidewalks. Enjoy the art and water fountains. Wash your hands three times with the automatic soap, faucet and dryer. Your child is going to wnat ot see and do everytihng. As long as you are running on of schedule for your flight and are within ear shot of your gate, let your child lead you around the airport until the first boarding call. It is a brand new world to them and they want to see it all. Stifling their curiosity for the world around them is going to cause you more grief than skipping down the moving sidewalk for the eighth time in a row. Plus, the more energy they get out before the flight, the less they will have on the flight.

* Keep the carry-ons lightweight (you will end up carrying them all) At first Moanna carried her backpack, but after ten minutes she was over it. Thankfully the straps on her backpack loosened up enough that it would fit on my back. You need four things in your child’s carry-on: small toys, snacks, a change of clothes and wipes. I packed an arsenal of toys. It was totally unnecessary and heavy. Out of everything I brought with me, Moanna was only interested in her coloring book and crayons and a collection of eraser puzzles (brilliant idea Laura). She spent most of the flight making up stories as she took apart the puzzles and put them together over and over. I packed a few bite-size snacks (fruit snacks, raisins, pretzels) and string cheese. She nibbled on them a bit, but once the flight attendant broke out drinks and cookies, she didn’t care about the raisins and cheese. We all pray that we will never need a change of clothes for our child, but it’s like insurance, you have to have it. Thankfully, we were accident free, but I packed a lightweight outfit in a gallon sized plastic bag (thank you Anika) just in case. Baby wipes are another thing you hope you don’t need, but pack just in case. I have a few sample packs of baby wipes left from when Moanna was born, and they are perfect for traveling. If you can’t get your hands on a sample pack, put a few wipes in a resealable sandwich bag and you’re good-to-go.

* Bring something chewy for take off and landing Little ears are sensitive to the pressure changes during take off and landing, so make sure you bring something keep the ear aches away. Take off wasn’t so bad, but her ears “felt funny” during landing. Moanna is still too young for chewing gum so I packed fruit snacks for her to munch on during take off and landing. My mother-in-law also told me that if her ears were really hurting to ask the flight attendant for a warm washcloth to press against her ears. We didn’t need it for this flight, but I’m sure I will be thankful for that knowledge on a future flight.

* Window seats are your friend Everyone has their own preference when it comes to window or aisle seat (does anyone prefer the middle?), but when it comes to flying with a little one, the window is the way to go. First, the window seat is almost as good as a TV. Moanna thought it was great to be on top of the clouds and to see how teeny-tiny everything was on the ground. Second, if your child is between you and the window, they can’t kick or bump other passengers or knock a drink over on them. Third, the window seat contains their energy. They have no escape and can clearly see their boundaries. If they sit in an aisle seat, you are going to spend a lot of the flight explaining to them that they can’t get up and walk around like everyone else on the plane.

* Flying’s not about you anymore I love flying. When I fly I like to read a book or newspaper, talk to the strangers around me about where we’re going and why, sleep and gaze out the window at the world passing by below. Flying is one of the few times that I can indulge in reading or napping without feeling the pain of guilt because when you’re trapped in a plane you can’t think “I should be cleaning” or “I need to run errands.” I bought a newspaper at the airport and had fantasies of reading it front to back and completing all of the puzzles while Moanna colored and snacked quietly. HA-HA! That SO did not happen. I didn’t even make it through the front page of the paper. Moanna was well behaved on the plane, but she needed me every two minutes. I spent the entire flight giving Moanna things she kept dropping, explaining to her what was happening on the plane, hand her snacks, playing  roles in her eraser stories and reminding her to keep her voice down. Strangers still talked to me, but not about me. They didn’t care where I was going or why. They wanted to know all about Moanna just like any other time we go out in public; I don’t know why I thought my in-flight conversations would be any different. How old is she? How often does she fly? Where is she going? Yada, yada, yada. You will feel much more peaceful once you accept the fact that your flying indulgences are out the window and your flight is dedicated to keeping your munchkin happy. I’ll give you a moment to mourn…

* Save some of your surprises and tricks for the return flight The journey home wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as smooth as the first flight. The excitement of flying had worn off a little, Moanna was tired from her jam-packed vacation and we were flying over those crazy storms that tore up the Midwest on Tuesday so there was a good amount of turbulence. The coloring book and erasers didn’t hold her attention for the entire flight like they had last time. Just when she was about to erupt into a bored and frustrated fit, I whipped out a pack of teeny animals that my Mom bought her at the zoo and she was so excited to have something new to play with that I was able to make it through almost an entire chapter in my book before she started asking for a snack. She didn’t want any of the snacks in her backpack, and the flight attendants weren’t allowed to be up and about serving drinks and munchies with tornadoes about to spawn below, so I dug out my secret emergency bag of animal crackers. I think she was more excited to have more animals to add to the ones she was already playing with than she was to have a special snack. Either way, I didn’t mind because I was able to finish the chapter I was working on before we started our very rocky decent into Atlanta.

Thank you so much for your suggestions and support as I prepared to fly with Moanna. I hope that your next child-on-board flight is an exciting adventure for the whole family. If you have any other flying tricks, please share them below.

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