Travelling with Toddlers

Now that the world is slowly opening up and us double jabbed adults are able to travel with small kids I was very excited about our holiday in Madeira (green list thank you very much). I wasn’t, however so excited about the journey. As I packed, then unpacked the case, taking out all the ‘I don’t really need those’ items, my hands shook as I started on the ‘carry-on bag’. Stomach churning, sweat forming, I went through my usual panic about not having enough entertainments for the kids.

Every holiday journey it’s the same. The airport is great with loads of things to see, a bit of money to buy something special for the flight, kids get fussed over whilst boarding (cute kids always a bonus), excitement carries over to take off- and then!!!!!!   It seems that no matter how many sticker books, favourite books, soft toys, new toys I can fit in the bulging carry on- it’s never enough. How come Mr Bumble’s a great book at home and we can spend two hours reading it- yet on a plane we can’t even read it once without fidgeting, scratching and kicking the heck out of the seat in front?

The snacks are soon demolished and surprisingly it’s not that easy to play eye-spy with a one year old, who’s view of the world is concerned with cheesy wotsits and Mummys boobies. The aisles, however, are sooo inviting to the 3yr old who decides now is the time to practice for the marathon. On trip 455 to the toilet, the 3yr old is convinced that the man with the eye mask on doesn’t really want to sleep. What he really wants is to be woken up by a child yelling “wakey wakey” really loudly in their ear.

With lots of apologies and umpteen choruses of wee willy winky the one yr old decides it’s time to sleep. Bliss thinks I- until 5 mins later I’m told it’s “cabin crew, prepare for landing”. Ever entered a country with a screaming one year old, a grumpy 3 year old, a jumper covered in stickers and a very dehydrated face.

Bet Victoria Beckham never has this problem.

Image by Bob Dmyt from Pixabay

Image by Prawny from Pixabay