No. 56: The Ultimate Cheat Code: Traveling with Kids

I did all the messy work so you don’t have to

*This email is a long one mostly because I insisted on adding photos! Be sure to click ‘View Entire Email’ to be able to read the whole thing.

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Traveling with kids can be a breeze! (Just kidding, but it can be easier. ) 

I’ve shared many times that flying gives me severe anxiety. I shared the root cause of this on a Coffee + Crumbs episode I don’t remember, but to sum it up really quickly—

I had a traumatic experience on a plane at a time I was flying 12 hours a week. Since then, my body goes into automatic panic attack the day of travel. Shortness of breath, chest pain, high anxiety, tenseness in my body take over before we leave for the airport. O coined the phrase “travel tummy” within months of knowing me and that’s always the cherry on top. 

Flying is inevitable, even despite this reality, but whenever we can drive we don’t hesitate. This year, we took on our longest drives with children— Canada (17.5 hours) with a 7, 6 and 2 year old and most recently, Chicago (14 hours) with an 8, 7, 3 year old and 2 month old. If you know me, I do as much research as possible to give myself a false sense of control in my life so I’ve amassed quite the travel hack repetoire over the years. 

My pain is your gain so it’s your lucky day, friends! 

I take a different approach when flying than I do when driving, but the majority of these travel essentials apply to both. This is what works best for us so, as always, tweak it for you and your people. “You do you,” if you will. 

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backpack. travel puzzles. magnetic game tin. dot it. lunch container. water wow. natural hand sanitizer. natural sanitizing wipes. kiddie neck pillow. kids headphones. water bottle. gum. drawing board. first aid kit. tamagotchi.

When we fly lots of variables are up in the air (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist) but we do a few things wihtout fail every. single. time. We always try to book as early as possible while coinciding with a naptime for the youngest babe at the time. After 15 years of traveling almost constantly as a couple and almost nine years of flying with kids, we’ve learned the hard way that flights are much more likely to be delayed or cancelled past noon than early in the morning so that’s our go-to. We have each kid carry their own backpack and roll their little suitcase if they’r able and everyone gets a set of headphones, a couple activities (think stickers, an activity book, a coloring book with colored pencils…) a lunch box and some snacks they have to ask permission to dig into. In my tote bag, I keep extra snacks, “travel gum” (a fun pack of gum they pick out because it’s the only time they’re allowed to have anything other than pur gum) and a few other bags. The first is what I call “the boo boo bag” which has things like elderberry, fever patches, natural pain reliever, bandages, cough drops, probiotics and allll the things. The other bag within the bag has—shocker—more bags, wipes, sanitizers, paper towels and mom things. Here are some extra flight tips: