There are few things more fun, and at the same time more stressful, than taking kids on holiday – especially abroad.
You’ll have a million things to think about on travel day, not least how to keep the kids occupied and happy during the flight. We’ve tried to make it easier by distilling our top tips into this handy blog.
b.box origins: born in the air
Did you know b.box started on an aeroplane?
The original b.box or ‘baby box’ was an innovative product designed to help parents with baby changing on the go. It was inspired by a real-life struggle: our founder Dannielle had taken her newborn baby on a flight to New Zealand in 2007, and knew there had to be a better way to handle baby care in the air.
She and Monique, two old friends with young families, collaborated on the design of the ‘baby box’ (later renamed the b.box nappy wallet), and officially launched b.box for kids two years later.
The design ethos has been the same ever since: beautiful and functional products to help make life easier for parents. It all started on a plane.
Tip 1: Pack the snacks
Here’s our first tip: take plenty of food with you.
The flight may only be a couple of hours, but factor in airport time and you’re looking at around five hours or more of mostly waiting around. Giving the kids plenty to eat, and taking their normal meal times into account, will help keep them regulated as well as combating the boredom. Don’t blow half your spending money on an airport restaurant – pack your own sandwiches and snacks.
It could be a nice opportunity to introduce your kids to the food they might eat on holiday. Going to Italy? Put some pasta in their lunchbox. France? A nice croissant.
If you’re on a long-haul flight, your airline will probably be taking care of meals and snacks – but it’s a good idea to check what’s on offer (and at what times) in advance, and think about taking a snackbox for the airport at least.
Tip 2: Bring the drinks
It’s always important to make sure your child has a drink on the go, but on flights it can offer extra advantages.
Drinking, especially swallowing, can help to equalise your kid’s ears during the enormous pressure changes. So if you’ve got a drink handy for both taking off and landing, it can help them get comfortable again.
The best drinks bottles for flights are clear plastic, robust, leakproof, and offer easy drinking with a straw or spout. Sounds exactly like our Tritan range, which comes in two sizes and also has an easy carry handle!
For younger kids, our sippy cup range is leakproof and has a special weighted straw to allow drinking from any angle.
Tip 3: Give them a new toy
On last year’s holiday, this writer let the kids choose a toy each when we got to our destination. But it didn’t work out: one of them begged for play slime (slime in a hotel!), and the other one went into a meltdown of indecision in the shop, and ended up with a big bulky thing that was a nightmare to squash into a suitcase.
This year, we did things differently, and recommend it for your travels: buy them a little something beforehand, put it in your hand luggage, and keep it a surprise until you’re on your way.
Straight-up bribery may be bad parenting, but you can use it in so many ways: you can tease the new treat to make sure they behave themselves. It should keep them quiet and happy on the flight. It will engage them more than any of their old toys would.
Small real-world playsets are good, or busy-hands fidget toys: in the UK you could try Polly Pocket, Transformers or Mini Brands surprise balls.
Obviously the smaller the better: it needs to fit in your luggage – maybe even in your kid’s lunchbox.
Tip 4: Don’t fear the screen time!
There is no better time to abandon your screen time limits than when you’re flying with kids.
Load up the tablet with several hours of downloaded shows, games and e-books, pack a set of headphones, and let them binge. You can probably pack fewer books and toys this way, saving precious luggage space.
The headphones bring an extra bonus: they won’t stop your kid’s ears from popping, but they might offer a bit of comfort and relief during those hands-over-the-ears phases of the flight, and they’ll block out some of the noise.
Tip 5: Get the kids to carry their own stuff
This one depends on how old and/or responsible your kids are. If they’re capable of looking after a rucksack or a dinky suitcase, load it up with their things – their lunchbox, bottle, any games, toys and tablets, and a change of clothes – and let them carry it themselves.
They’ll enjoy being responsible for their own stuff, and it gives you more space in your luggage for duty-free souvenirs and anything else you fancy.
(Most b.box lunchboxes and bottles have their own carry handles – but will fit beautifully inside a rucksack, too!)
A kid’s essentials for the flight: the b.box checklist
- a lunchbox meal
- at least 2 snacks
- large clear drinks bottle (to be filled once through customs)
- change of clothes
- tablet
- headphones
- small toy