The (un)trouble with travelling with children

From the moment we found out I was pregnant, we decided that having a child was not going to interrupt our lifestyle. That's not to say that we didn't think that our lives weren't going to change. But we weren't going to let this little person stop us from doing the things that we loved.

One of those things was travelling. Callum took his first flight when he was 4 months and he was a textbook traveller. It was a short flight from Sydney to Noosa. I just hadn't banked on the traffic getting to Noosa, and we had to pull into a cafe so that I could ask them for some water to make up some formula to feed a very hungry baby. Lesson learnt: we now pack A LOT of snacks when we travel. Keeping kids' hunger under control means that they are less likely to crack it when there are unforeseen delays. 

I clearly remember having discussions with friends about the fear of flying/travelling with kids. I just never had that concern. We have travelled to loads of places with Callum who is now 8. He now knows that when he needs his passport, he will need to have a sleep on the plane (as it's long haul). 

The blessed mercy of modern airplanes having personal handheld devices or individual screens on the seat in front of you means that children are occupied for the whole flight. A colouring book with a few join-the-dot or spot-the difference-puzzles doesn't really cut it anymore. Give them a screen and they can endure any length of air time. It doesn't stop us from bringing phenergan on flights as a backup. My GP advised that the trick is to give them the recommended dosage - it's under-dosing that causes the hyperactivity!

As a family we love travelling - learning about how big the world really is, checking out new places and finding activities that will suit all of us. Often we find that the activities that we think Callum are those that we enjoy the most. On our recent trip to Sri Lanka we went canyoning and rafting and it was AWESOME! (More of this on a post to follow but here's a snapshot).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9cnmYJ7J9-2bmhfVU5jNW50WjA/view?usp=sharing

So, the travel bug is certainly alive and well. We often look at Callum's desk globe and wonder at the wonder that is out there to be discovered.