Fly Direct

If possible, arrange your itinerary to avoid a layover. The process is much smoother if you can settle into one plane instead of having to get out, navigate an airport, and settle in all over again. If you can’t manage a direct flight, ensure your layover is at least two hours to give you all time to get through the airport, even if your first flight was a little late.

Bring Their Favorites

Small children like the familiar, and they are more likely to enjoy traveling if they have some of their favorite items right there with them. For example, make sure they have blankets or stuffed animals from home to help them sleep. In addition, let each child bring along some toys and snack items to keep them happy during those times when they are awake.

Pack Extra Clothes

Especially if you are traveling with a baby, at least one change of clothes is essential so you don’t have an uncomfortable flight holding a baby with clothes covered in something unpleasant. In addition, pack a spare shirt of your own so you can change too if something goes horribly wrong.

Consider Jet Lag

Kids have a harder time adjusting to time zone changes than adults because they get moodier when they are tired. Therefore, consider getting a prescription for sleeping medicine to help them adjust. In addition, consider the local time at your destination for several hours before you arrive and encourage the kids to sleep or wake up as appropriate.

Relax

Rather than being stressed and uptight as you travel, take a deep breath and relax. Play with your kids, make silly faces, and entertain them with their favorite games. If you’re stressed, they will be too. But if you’re relaxed enjoying yourself, they are more likely to do well.

Planning ahead for all stages of the trip before you go will help you survive. If you do all the right things and the trip is still going horribly, just count down until it’s over. It’s a lot easier to manage if you remember that the chaos will end at a definite point in time!

Tips for surviving international travel with small children is a post from: Family Travel Resource

Their website has a Tat Builder, which let’s you choose the message, color, and icon that will go on the tattoo. The message options include:

• if lost please call
• in case of emergency
• medical alert
• on a field trip
• please call my dad
• please call my mom
• please call my school

For each message you choose, you can enter your own custom message, which in most cases is a phone number. If you want to have multiple messages, you can simply order more than one for your child to wear.

SafetyTats come in packages, so you can have several on hand. They’re perfect for field trips, and especially for traveling on vacation.

Learn more at http://safetytat.com

Use Tattoos to Keep Kids Safe On Trips is a post from: Family Travel Resource

Traveling with kids, especially young children, is never easy. It doesn’t matter if you’re traveling on an airplane or in a car, there are going to be long bouts of time where there’s nothing to do. In many cases, that’s when a child’s mental and physical energy is at its peak. If they don’t have an acceptable release for that energy, they will usually act out.

In most cases, the best way to curtail travel boredom for children is with games designed for traveling. One of the best resources out there is 50 Nifty Super Travel Games. It comes with fifty full travel games that vary from road trip games that you’ll remember from when you were a kid, to new games that are fun and can also be played with other family members. This is what one parent had to say about the book:

Well written for a child’s view point. Includes planning, safety and packing ideas. Simple, travel friendly (no big deal if it gets dirty or lost) list of supplies. Encourages use of imagination and creativity on everyone’s part… including adults.

There are plenty of travel resources available for children. One of the best ways to find the right travel games for your trip is search using your mode of transportation. Here are a few examples to help you out:

• travel games for the car
• travel games for the plane
• travel games for the train

Make Traveling with the Kids Easier with Travel Games is a post from: Family Travel Resource

CARES is designed specifically for aviation use for children age 1 and older who weigh between 22 and 44 pounds. These youngsters are old enough to be in their own seats, but are too small for the seat belt alone to protect them. Their bodies cannot withstand the jolts that are common in routine transportation, much less emergency situations, and they flail forward or slide beneath the seat belt if they are not held securely in place.

For many parents, the idea of restraining their child in flight is unnecessary, and when they think of accidents, they usually think of collisions. The idea of a collision in an airplane seems extremely unlikely, and if it did occur, the assumption is that the results would be catastrophic for everyone involved — regardless of restraints. However, for airplanes, collisions are not the main reason for wearing restraints.

The biggest concern for airplanes is turbulence. It can occur at any time and it can be violent. It doesn’t take much turbulence to pick a small child or person off their seat. In extreme turbulence — which again, can happen at any time during flight — children could easily be thrown around the cabin, hitting their head, causing severe bodily damage and in rare cases, death. The reality of that danger is the reason why we choose to use CARES with our children.

CARES is also convenient. It was originally designed so parents wouldn’t have to lug car seats into the cabin (along with their children and everything else). Its features include:

• The first and only harness type Aviation Child Safety Device to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an alternative to a car seat.
• An elegantly designed belt-and-buckle device that works in conjunction with the regular airplane seat belt and provides young travelers the same level of safety as a car seat.
• Weighs just one pound and fits into a 6″ stuff sack! It is easily portable, simple to install, adjustable to every size airplane seat, and usable on any seat in the airplane, except in the emergency exit rows.
• Need your car seat on the other end of the trip? Just check it through as luggage – and carry CARES on board in your pocket!

For more information, read their FAQ and visit http://www.kidsflysafe.com/.

Helping Your Children Fly Safe with CARES is a post from: Family Travel Resource