7 Tips to Entertain Your Kids on a Long Flight
Do you stress when faced with a long flight ahead with your kids?
You might recall hearing about the mother and toddler who got kicked off a plane back in early July. This became a national story and a hot topic at preschool PTA meetings around the country. According to the mother, the flight attendant advised the mother to give the child baby Benadryl after he wouldn’t stop repeating “Bye, bye plane,” understandably upsetting fellow passengers. The mother took offense to the suggested ‘drugging’ of her 18-month old and refused. We’re not here to debate who’s at fault… but we’d love to offer you seven tips to calm and entertain your child/children during air travel. The Perrin Post also provides a quality list of tips.
#1：Books and Games
Babies and toddlers love pop-up books and stuffed animals they can interact with and talk to. New toys and books the kids have never seen before should be brought as a special treat. (Just be sure that whichever toy you choose is quiet so as not to disturb your neighbors). Older kids enjoy hand-held video games, books, card games, coloring books and even crossword puzzles. Make use of your surroundings as well – the phones, window coverings, and even plastic silverware can all be used to entertain the youngest of kids. See if you can find any games in our previous post: Kango’s Picks: Top 5 blog posts and sites about car games for kids.
#2：Movies and Music
Do you have a portable DVD player at home? Definitely bring it with you on the plane! (They also rent them for a small fee at most major airports. about.com has tips about renting DVD players.) Portable music players (iPods) are great as well for kids of all ages. The Berkeley Parents Network suggests picking an airline with TVs on the back of the seats, especially when traveling internationally (i.e. Japan Air or Singapore Air).
#3： Pack Your Kids a “Picnic”
Chances are that, unless you are flying internationally, the food selections on your flight will be limited to peanuts and drinks. Help keep your kids happy and entertained by packing each of them a “picnic” made up of their favorite foods. Check out Babycenter.com for other great recommendations about flying with kids.
#4：Take Evening Flights If You Can
Kids are likely to be more tired on evening flights, and are more likely to sleep. The lights will be low, and the atmosphere is likely to be more calm and peaceful. If you can afford it, book an extra seat for your baby or toddler so they can lie down in the seat and take a nap more comfortably
#5：Take Frequent Trips Up and Down the Aisles
It’s important to get up and stretch your own legs on longer flights to prevent circulation blockages, and it’s just as important for your kids. Frequent walks up and down the aisle are great for short breaks, and smaller kids will love the attention they will get.
#6：Get a Map of Your Destination
Slightly older children will enjoy figuring out where they are on a map, as well as looking at pictures of the places they are going to visit and even the hotel they will be staying at. Let the kids make a list of the things they want to do and see first.
#7： Book Ahead and Get the Bulkhead (First Row) Seat
This great suggestion comes from a forum on Flytalk.com. Have you ever been on a plane and envied the extra space for the people sitting in the very first row? It’s called the bulkhead row, and it’s a great idea for traveling with kids! When the seatbelt sign is off, your children can get out of their seats and quietly play on the floor with puzzles, books and toys. You’ll enjoy the extra legroom as well.
So there you have it, seven awesome tips intended to allow you to do what you’re supposed to do on your vacation – RELAX.
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10 Responses
on a very long, 14 hour overseas trip, I packed a different “present” for each hour – I picked up inexpensive craft projects and games at Michaels, one for each hour I thought our kids would be awake (about 7 total). Worked like a charm, each hour they would open a new toy and it would give them about 20-30 minutes of interesting activity that was totally new to them.
I tend to notice children, especially babies, have the most difficulty with the dealing with the pressure change during take off and landing. It’s painful, they don’t know why it’s happening, and they can’t make it go away!
Any advice on how parents can help their children overcome this? Yawning, swallowing, chewing gum, and drinking are things I remember my parents telling me to overcome this when we flew.
From my own observation, i think #5 is the most effective. Well, if a kid is quietly watching a animation movie with a portable DVD player, then I won’t notice him/her. In my recent long flight from SFO to Shanghai, a 4 or 5 year old girl walked up and down the aisles and gave everyone big smiles. I believed that she would love to help the flight attendants to serve us drinks. It looked like that she had a great time on a long flight.
[...] We had to get up and walk, up and down and up and down the aisles. Sometimes we ran! Wish I had had Min’s suggestions for keeping my kids busy on the [...]
Great to see some positive tips for flying with kids after all the negative media attention. Although I used to think that the bulkhead was the way to go with kids, after doing the research for my book “Jet With Kids”, I have to disagree for the following reasons:
1) Due to unexpected turbulence, it is unsafe for children (especially babies) to be playing on the floor or not retrained in flight. Please see more info about the dangers of the lap child (unrestrained child) at
http://www.jetwithkids.com/book_freeChapter.html
2) Because there is no space to store your belongings, everything must fit in the overhead during take off and landing, If delayed on the runway or circling overhead, this can be a long, torturous delay if without wipes, beverage, entertainment, etc.
3) Actually sitting a baby or toddler in the window seat and the parent in the middle or aisle seat allows a private area where you don’t feel exposed to other passengers and your family has a little “home” for the trip.
4) The arm rests do not raise or lower, however the tray table does come out of these armrests. This is a hazard for small children as they can pinch fingers in there.
5) Bassinetts are also not a safe option as they only loosely velcro over your baby and if the plane would drop quickly or experience any severe unexpected turbulence, your baby is not safe.
Although parents do not like to think that these things could or would happen to them, it does happen. And after interviewing survivors of these tragic events I realized that statistics do not matter when it comes to my child being killed or seriously injured. The fact is that NOBODY says that an unrestrained child is a safe option on planes.
Oh and one more thing-
Another fabulous tip (or 2)?
-video iPods for favorite cartoons and movies as well as photo slideshows, favorite songs for children and adults! Much smaller than a DVD player and now close to the same price!
-CARES harness for inflight safety for kids 22-44lbs.
For more tips and constantly updated product reviews (my toddler and I fly monthly reviewing products and services) check out http://www.JetWithKids.com/blog
But if you get anything out of this- please reconsider holding your child during flight. You wouldn’t consider getting them out of their car seat and holding them on the freeway at 65mph. Why is it ok at 500mph? or 200 on the runway?
It is possible to have a great flight with kids – we do it all the time! Have a great flight!
Anya Clowers, RN
http://www.JetWithKids.com
If only #7 were actually easy; those seats fill up like crazy and are usually reserved months in advance, I guess a good option would just be to fly southwest and get the blue preboard card; then you could grab the front seats and have some extra wiggle room.
Ki Toy Johnson…
Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin…..
I traveled with kids as a nanny and those little fish crackers are fun. My kids set up a little aquarium on their tray tables. That kept them occupied forever. More tips are on my blog! http://doeverythingwell.blogspot.com/
The plane also often has good kid movies. Education ones are especially good!
Yes, some flights like Singapore Airlines have games and movies for children. They can be entertained for most of the journey.