End of theme week…
Thank you for your tips and feedback, we hope you’ll enjoy your summer travels!!!
Keep them still
When stopping for lunch while traveling, we always aim for kid-friendly places with nice healthy menus, crayon box and highchairs. Unfortunately they’re not always available, or those highchairs may already be taken. That’s why we always take a chair harness with us.
I have the baboz — a cloth harness that fits on most chairs and secures your child during meals. It really takes up so little space that it could permanently reside in your pram bag.
Courtney and Esther have another version, either the totseat or the grogoup chair harness.
Another very portable option, not really pocket-sized but definitely more sturdy, is the Phil&Teds Mee Too chair that was already praised by Esther.
Now you can enjoy your meals while on holiday!
-Michela
Gift-wrapped little presents
Long-haul flights with kids are never, ever easy. No matter how prepared or organized I am, I always have a moment during the ten-hour flight to the U.S. where I swear I will never ever travel again… Unfortunately, we live far from our families and so we really can’t avoid these super long flights, but the good news is that I’m getting slightly better at it.
One fail-safe trick I have is to buy a few cheap toys (small books, little cars, Schleich animals, mini puzzle, etc.) and wrap them up individually before the flight, heavy on the scotch tape. I keep them hidden and bring them out at different intervals throughout the flight. The extra scotch tape makes it a bit more difficult to open (think – an extra few distracted minutes), and then the novelty of the new toy keeps them happy for a good long stretch.
It’s not exactly bribery (though I’m not entirely against the idea); it’s just a fun way to break up the hours of sitting and sitting and sitting…
-Courtney
Car journey breaks
I know that when we were young our parents made us travel for long hours in one stretch, but it is also true that back then we were not tightly tied to a plastic seat with a snug fit!
So what I recommend, for everybody’s sanity, is to stop every two or three hours to let your children move their limbs and get some fresh air. These stops do not have to be very long, even 10 minutes is enough to make the kids happy. Ideally you would stop near a playground but if that is not available then any grassy patch will do: just let them run!
You could even have a picnic, and here comes my second advice: always keep a picnic rug in the car– it will make all these stops more comfortable (and you can place on it the non-running members of the family)!
-Michela
Audio books
If you’re like our family, and (still) have no television, let alone a portable DVD player, the solution for a long and tedious car journey is as follows… The first hours, you make sure your children sleep (just deprive them of some sleep the day before, leave very early, and they will sleep the moment you hit the road). The next hours, feed them healthy snacks (sandwiches, cucumber slices, grapes, cheese, banana, etc), sing songs, read books and play games (I see something yellow! Find something yellow!). After that, bring out the unhealthy snacks (cookies, chips, bonbons, lollipops, M&M’s, etc). And then, we have reached the point where you WISH you had a portable DVD player, but unfortunately the financial situation has always kept you from getting one…
But, no need to panic! The solution is simple, cheap, and educational on top of it: audio books! (more…)
A little lollipop will go a LONG way…
Now I’m sure this will be frowned upon by some of my more patient peers, but a lollipop is a sure bet for keeping my boys happy (seated, quiet, belted) on an airplane, especially at those crucial moments like take-off and landing…
Give your kids a wrapped lollipop and it will give you at least 15 minutes of quiet time: five minutes to get the wrapper off, and then at least 10 to enjoy their lolly!
You can even buy sugar-free lollipops these days, which are better for their teeth, and they can’t tell the difference! Oh lolly, lolly, lolly, lollipop!!
-Courtney
Stickers everywhere
Sometime the simplest things are best. What has turned out the be the best thing to keep my 2-year-old busy in trains, planes and automobiles? Stickers!! I would never in a million years have thought of it, but my friend Katja handed me a whole book full of Peppa Pig stickers for a car journey recently, and I have never seen a little person spend so much time looking at something –contemplating what to do with it, where exactly to put it, delicately placing it, deciding that it was the wrong place to place it, then take it off and start all over again. You might spend a few minutes after you arrive at your destination un-sticking stickers from windows and chairs, but it will provide hours of fun for your kids, and sanity for the rest of the family!
- Emilie
Motion Sickness
Apparently motion sickness is written in your genes and it’s therefore hereditary. So given that I get sick when riding backwards in a black cab or when I’m waiting on the platforms for a motorboat in Venice, my poor son was bound to have a motion sickness issue.
I am glad to report that he is getting somehow better as he gets older; at least he can now warn you when he is about to throw up… a major improvement!
Every tip I’m going to give is just common sense — we have never tried medicines (we thought he was too young and not sick enough) and we never tried the elastic armbands (because they did not work with my pregnancy sickness).
The first important thing is to try to keep the fluid intake on the low side before you get on the car (or bus or boat), and definitely avoid milk. If he throws up milk you will regret it for the whole vacation. Juice, chamomile or baby tea do not leave the same smell!
Of course the ideal would be for your child to be asleep during the more troubled part of the trip (open sea tracts or mountain roads), but one can’t always be that lucky. My advice is to bring some very dry savory snacks and let him eat those during the most troubled moments. Sailmen swear on bread with anchovies, but that may be a dash too strong of a flavour for Junior! (more…)
Traveling with (two) kids
We’ve already mentioned before how much we love the Phil&Teds double buggy, but as a mother of two little boys, I can tell you the importance of taking it with you on holiday…
- It’s a must-have in airports when you need both your kids to sit still, or if you’re in a hurry and you don’t have time to walk at your child’s pace. (Try traveling on your own with two kids and being dropped off by a taxi to the wrong terminal at Heathrow airport while running late to begin with!!!)
- The double buggy is brilliant if both your kids still take naps. Who wants to spend any extra time in the hotel waiting for nap time to be over? Both kids can sleep, even at the same time, in the Phil&Teds!
- It’s also quite useful even if one of your kids isn’t riding in it, as it provides storage space for all your shopping!
It’s obviously not as light-weight or travel friendly as, say, the Maclaren, but if you’ve got two kids and you’re going to a city where you’ll be walking, the Phil&Teds is a life-saver!
-Courtney
Magic (mess-free) markers
We travel from London to Seattle (a 10-hour flight) at least twice a year with our two boys, and I can assure you it is never an easy travel day. I always chalk it up to being an awful day, and then I’m just pleasantly surprised if it all goes well. It is the little things, like these magic markers, that help make it more tolerable.
Crayola makes mess-free color-wonder travel packs that are brilliant. The markers only work on the special paper, and while the ink is clear, each marker magically shows up as a different color on the color-wonder paper.
These kits are perfect for long-haul flights, as you’ll need more than just a few tricks up your sleeve to keep your kids entertained…
-Courtney
Restaurant bag
Tired of the toys wandering around in the Hervé Chapelier shopping bag I tend to use as a nappy bag, a couple of years ago (when I had only one child and thus more time on my hands), I started making little bags out of cute left-over fabric. The purpose of these little bags was to hold a handful of toys to bring to restaurants or on journeys — to keep my toddler entertained and my head cool.
When my girlfriends saw me, being so super organized with my little cloth bags, they fell from their chairs out of admiration for such highly innovative ideas and amazing skill work 
. They all wanted me to sew them little cloth bags for their nappy bags (which I did, of course — sigh). The bags were quickly baptized ‘restaurant bags’, and we all started to bring them to restaurants, or on our travels. (more…)
Vive le café
Every country has its own coffee etiquette. The US has given us the coffee chains with the ubiquitous paper cups in different sizes. The Italians have given us the no frills espresso and the cappuccino. But what about the French? What is the difference between a noisette, a crème and a café au lait? What is the difference between ordering at the bar, in the sitting area or on the terrace?
After having innumerable visitors come to stay with us and witnessing the confusion when ordering a coffee, I have decided that it is time to shed some light on the situation. (more…)
Bring a carrier
Airport luggage handling is unreliable to say the least, and you shouldn’t depend too much on them. That is why you should hang on to your equipment (stroller and car seat) for as long as you can. But sometimes even that that is not enough….
This past spring my family and I were caught in the Terminal 5 disaster at Heathrow. We left London on day 3 of its (mal)functioning, and when I handed our three bags at check-in, I was quite sure we were not going to see them for way longer than a few hours. What I did not expect them to loose was our stroller (which I carried myself to the plane door)! It took British Airways over a week to locate it and deliver it to us.
While our adventure was quite unique, it is, unfortunately, not very rare that strollers get delayed or damaged during the flight. So one of the best advice for any frequent traveler mum I can give is to bring an alternative form of transportation for your baby, and possibly one that will go with you in the cabin. Front carriers, back carriers and slings are all fine. Just bring what you are most comfortable with.
And you can even use them during the flight, once the seat-belt sign is off, to hold your baby and still have your hands free!
-Michela
Make it fun… and educational!
When our first son was born we thought it would be fun to buy him his own suitcase — something small enough for him to be able to lug around when he was a bit older, and in a fun recognizable color. From the minute he was able to drag his suitcase behind him, he has been pulling it through airports and hotels wherever we go. He also loves to help pack his suitcase, and it’s always a big deal for him to find his suitcase on the baggage carousel. We’ve even been lucky enough before to see his suitcase being loaded onto the plane from the view out the window. His suitcase makes traveling fun, and it also provides some level of comfort whenever we are somewhere new. (His suitcase is from Kipling.)
We also thought it would be a fun tradition to collect patches from all the countries we’ve visited and attach them to his suitcase. Every time we travel to a new country, we go on a search for the perfect patch. It’s fun for him to recognize the flags, and for him to be able to remember all the places he’s been. (The patches, of course, make his suitcase even more unique and personal to him.) (more…)
Familiar melodies
I’ve read that an unborn baby seems to be able to listen to a melody through his mother’s belly, and after he’s born he will recognize that familiar melody and feel more at home in his new surroundings.
I decided to experiment with my last baby, and religiously held the Sigikid musical toy my mother-in-law gave me when I was about 7 months pregnant to my belly before going to sleep. My husband was looking at me as if I was insane — which I probably was, given the hormonal overload in my pregnant body!
I never knew for sure if that familiar melody made my son feel more comfortable after he was born, but he did grow very attached to his toy.
I always bring his music toy with me when we’re traveling, and the music (Mozart’s wiegenlied, in our case) always calms him down when he’s upset about new, strange surroundings.
Available in different cute models through Amazon UK
xxx Esther
Travel books for children
There are loads of benefits of traveling with your kids… you give them a broader perspective of the world, introduce them to different cultures and practices, prepare them for bigger things to come, etc. But sometimes I wonder just how much my kids are soaking up from all our traveling. Will they remember it? Will they gain anything from it? Right now my son knows that he gets croissants when we go to France, that his best friend, Sara, lives in Amsterdam, and that you eat gelato and say ‘ciao’ in Italy. That’s pretty much the extent of it.
I’m sure it’s an overwhelming concept to grasp for a little kid, which is why it helps to do a bit of reading up on some of the places you visit. My favorite informative travel books for kids are from the “This is…” series by Miroslav Sasek.
Sasek believed that young people deserved to know about the things they would be seeing when they traveled. His descriptions of the different cities are marked by a subtle humor, and are filled with interesting facts about the city and its people/buildings/transport, etc. And the bold, stylized drawings are simply beautiful. (more…)
Traveling in France
No wonder France is one of the prime destinations in the world for holidays. Beach, mountains, culture, food, wine… you name it, we have it! And kids are (mostly) welcomed anywhere.
Most restaurants have some kind of kids’ menu, often serving the universally appreciated steak hache et pommes de terre roti, otherwise known as burgers and chips. But contrary to northern European countries, you will rarely find any special equipment for kids. Over here even toddlers are expected to sit with their head barely reaching over the table for a whole 3 course meal using normal size cutlery and glass cups, and surprisingly, they mostly do. Hotels are similar — kids are welcome but are expected to fit in. That being said, every hotel I have stayed in has been able to provide a cot so there is some kid-friendly equipment.
Another thing that needs a word of warning are the French toilets… (more…)
Cleaning them
Maybe not everyone knows that in this space-constrained land called
We have the Munchkin Duck Tub and we are really happy with it. It’s fun (babies are definitely not scared), it’s comfortable, there’s a bottom plug to drain it and it has a suction cap so you can hang it in the shower nicely out of the way.
AND, if you squeeze the beak it goes “quack! quack!”… but then I’m not sure that’s a plus!
-Michela
Roll ‘n Go bibs
These Tommee Tippee Roll n Go bibs
These bibs come everywhere with us. They make dining out in restaurants that much more easy (and tidy)!
Alternatively, you can buy disposable bibs
-Courtney
Eurostar
I have been traveling to and from London and Paris for years and years and it is some of the most relaxed traveling ever. The Eurostar leaves from the center of one capital and arrives a mere 2 hours and 15 minutes later bang in the middle of the other capital city. I would sometimes just go from one city to the other for a night out!
Even now with 2 little travel buddies, it is still the easiest way for traveling… but there are a couple of tricks! Firstly there are two “kid friendly” cars — car 1 and car 18 at the extremities of the train, but it is only possible to book yourself into these cars if you book by telephone, not on the internet. Kid friendly does not mean much except that the seats are all grouped by 4 in those cars and there are changing table facilities. Most importantly, I don’t feel like I have to worry as much about a child running around or crying in those specific cars. (more…)
