Looking Back: Preparing for international travel with children

Ugh! (Yes, that IS the first word I'm going to write in this post.)

When I found out that our plane flight from Houston, TX (where we were visiting my brother) to Moscow was going to take 11 hours, I thought I'd want to die! Seriously -- ELEVEN hours?! I tried to imagine how Jon and I would survive with three young children AND an infant for that long stretch of time, but it would only make me feel dizzy and sick. I was quite positive that by the end of our journey every person on the plane would hate us and toss us out of the front door.

I was NOT going to take this challenge lightly, so we started to prepare for our international flight with our children several months in advance (even before we'd purchased the tickets).

I was advised that I should plan for and buy at least one new toy per child per hour. Um, okay. That might be fine with one or two kids, but I didn't feel like going through that extent. I mean, for the three older kids that would be 33 toys to keep track of! Nope. Not happening. There had to be a better way.

I definitely wasn't going to buy all new toys for the kids, so before we moved from our apartment and sold nearly everything in our home, I kept some small, unique toys and threw them in a box marked 'Plane'. These were generally toys the kids loved, but that I didn't let them play with all the time. My other big criteria was that they needed to be toys that if they got lost on the plane or in the airport, they wouldn't be mourned over. I also threw in some empty notebooks that we'd never used for the kids to draw in.

We did buy some new toys just for the novelty. Stuff like Crayola Magic Marker books, a couple travel games, etc. The best was going to the clearance sections in the toy isles at Target. We found some Bakuguns for really cheap. All the toys we bought for the kids were stuff they'd never had before, and that added to the novelty. Still, we didn't go crazy with buying toys, and we figured the children could swap and share.

I, then, questioned myself, "Where would all this stuff go?" I imagined a diaper bag acting like a ginormous black hole and ME being the one to carry it everywhere and having to dig and search for the kids toys. I couldn't do it -- I wouldn't do it! I needed to preserve my sanity. I had heard of children loving to pull around their own bag on wheels, and that was just what I decided we were going to do.

We could have just run to Target and grabbed three cheap roll-along bags for the kids, but I worried they would be poor quality. I detest the idea of buying cheap things and then just replacing them when they wear out. That kind of attitude is what's making our landfills so out of control. I wanted something that would LAST, if not forever, at least for a long time. The kids could always have their bag to take with them on every trip we go on, and even someday they might use them to pack their stuff in when they visited grandma and grandpa's house for the week. I knew it might be pricy to buy, and Jon didn't quite see my vision concerning this at first, but I was willing to save the money I was earning from babysitting to get each of the children their own carry-on luggage.

I checked out L.L. Bean and Pottery Barn Kids websites. Both of them seemed to have great quality carry-on luggage, but the Pottery Barn Kids bags were a bit smaller and mentioned that they would fit under the seats on the plane. That sealed the deal. I did not want to be pulling down the children's bags from the overhead storage all throughout the flight. I let the children come to the computer and choose what fun design they wanted, and then I splurged and paid the extra money to have each of them monogrammed with their names. If I would have gone the cheap, big-box store route, I probably could have purchased all three bags for the price of one of the bags we ended up getting, but I felt good about my decision to buy a quality product.

I was surprised when this huge box arrived at the place we were subletting over the summer. I just expected all the bags to be sent separately. Instead, they were all individually boxed and then placed snugly in one large box. And, I just have to comment that Pottery Barn knows what a quality corrugated box is! Man! They were the best to pack stuff in when we made our final move.

Kate and James' bags were on a sale when I purchased them, but when I saw this little Batman bag, I knew I HAD to get it for my Bruce. Unfortunately, this one wasn't on sale, but with a name like "Bruce", we have to take advantage of all things Batman for that kid (until he's sick of it, of course).

Another fun thing that we purchased for the children and ourselves for our trip were good earphones. Jon convinced me of their importance, so we bought some Skull Candy earphones. Jon's and mine were nicer sets, but we just got the children the regular quality. Still, the regular quality is better than what they hand out on the plane. We were able to get the kids their favorite colors and they even had a picture of a tiny sock monkey head on the end of the ear buds. The children felt so special getting their very own set like Daddy's.

"Hold out your hands and close your eyes!"

*Gasp* Their very own earphones!
They were so pleased!

My biggest piece of advice when you're planning to travel long hours with children (whether by plane or car), is that you should store away all the toys, bags, and anything else that's for the trip, and keep them from the kids until you're actually traveling. Even if you try to be sneaky, the kids most likely will figure out some of the things you've purchased, which is actually good. They may beg you to play with them right away, but the anticipation of waiting and knowing what they get to look forward to when they're traveling will nearly erase any anxieties they might have. It's like they're waiting for Christmas morning. And, with everything being new and exciting, they're more likely to play with them that much longer. I wouldn't even let the children play with their roll-on bags when they arrived in the mail. I stored them up high on a shelf, and I was able to start pre-packing them.

Besides toys and such, we threw in a special stuffed animal and the kids' extra blanket in their bags (we have always bought two each of the children's favorite blanket -- one of the best parental decisions we made. It has really saved us on those sick nights or general washes). Our family would have to attempt sleep on the plane, and we knew it wouldn't happen without these special items.

Another saving strategy was that both Jon and I purchased electronic tablets. When Jon's parents came to visit us last May to help us move from our apartment, they both brought their iPads with them. The kids spent lots of time on their grandparent's iPads and loved the games. After seeing them, Jon kept saying that he wanted to buy me one. I'm a fighter of technology that's new to me, though, and I didn't see any good reason for me to have one. He tried to sell me on one by saying I could play games, keep a planner/calendar, and that we could store some movies on it and buy games for the kids to watch and play during our flight. I wasn't really convinced, but Jon went ahead and got me an iPad 1 that included TONS of extra storage space (at that time, they were being phased out and it was on a great sale). Jon chose to get an Android tablet for himself. I LOVE mine now!!!

In the end, we flew on a really great airline that my brother recommended, and they had so many great movies and food and snacks, and it was all such a major novel experience in itself that we hardly used a fraction of the things the children had in their bags. They certainly didn't go to waste, however, because after we landed and made it to our apartment, there was SO much to do to set up and finalize, that the kids just went to town with their bags during that time, and it was SUCH a lifesaver. They stayed busy for hours with their bags.

I still don't give the children free reign of their special bags. I have them stored up high on a shelf in their wardrobe and keep many of the travel toys stored inside. I'm already thinking ahead for that future time when we have to make that LOOOONG flight again.


p.s. THE very best part about having the children each pull their own bags was that it gave them a responsibility and a direction. Their little hands held tightly to the handles of their very own bags that they were so proud of, and they followed Jon like a row of ducklings throughout the airport (I was at the rear to keep watch over our crew). This was an extremely unexpected, but pleasant surprise! Honestly, Jon and I had enough to carry and keep track of in the airports, and we worried about the boys running off or zigzagging everywhere, like young children do, but the bags kept them going straight and kept them focused. It was so beautiful! We didn't have a layover or a long walk on our trip to Moscow, but we did have a big one when we left New York to visit my brother for a couple weeks before we left the country, and we cannot say enough good things about the children's roll-along bags. They are worth their weight in gold!!!