Long flight with younger children

How to survive a long flight with young children, Do not drink until you forget you have them this may cause you to be chucked off the flight before you even get on it.

So yes a 9 1/2 flight with any child is enough to drive any sane person to want to drink until their heart content however it isn't that bad really.

Make sure your child is aware that it will be a very long time.

- for example the week before we flew we said " this time next week we will just be getting on the plane" we did this all through out the day to show that when we are on the plane it will be a very long day then in the evening when we sat down to eat our dinner the oldest turned and asked what we would be doing this time next week and we told her that " we would just be getting there" but we would still need to do lots of things before we even get out of the airport and we talked about all the things we had to do. That way when we got there she knew and she was excited to be telling us what we had to do next.

Don't bother with big bags or pull along cases

- on long flights with children they want to spread out take their shoes off and relax if they have a larger bag or suitcase this isn't as easy to put out of the way or get stuff out of. you dont have to be up with the latest trend with the snazzy bags with all the mods cons just stick with a character backpack for a few quid from Primark.

Make sure they are comfy

- don't put your child in trendy or stylish clothes make sure that they are comfy on an over night flight or a flight where you arrive late at night take a set of pajamas and let them get changed into them as then they can just fall asleep when they get there. and do not forget a jumper as it can get so very cold all the way up there.

Seats

-  don't bother about trying to get a seat near the toilet as kids like to be able to get up and stretch their legs get a seat at the back away from the toilets let them walk. They are on a huge plane miles in the sky and they can walk around in the plane!! it's so exciting for them. Also they can be a bit smelly on a long flight and people like to queue for these toilets as well so they will stand next to you being nosy or knock you while you are eating.

Snack Packs

- on our flight we were able to buy a kids snack box this was just a small box with a few different snack and a drawing page with some crayons in as well for a few pounds it was worth it as this i managed to drag out for a while as well as she kept forgetting about it as well.

Activity packs

- now i am not on about the ones you buy in a shop or the endless magazines, and it isn't as hard as it sounds. I had some plain white envelopes in the drawer ( you know the ones you put dinner money in ) i printed off different activity sheets for each of them obviously only ones that i knew they could do, i then labelled up the envelopes for a different step of our journey e.g open at the airport, open when the seat belt light comes on. in each envelope i put a couple of colouring sheets & suitable others sheets, word searches, spot the difference. I also made our own eye spy as well for the wait to get on the plane as some time this can take a while so this kept them occupied.

Small toys or action figures

- we filled the smallest ones bag with her little toys she loves playing with these she had princesses and Peppa pig ones these kept her quiet for a little while at least most the time it was lining them up and drawing round them but it was simple and cheap.

Headphones

- make a big deal over them choosing a set of head phones so that they can have their own ones and this will save you money on the flight as well as on our flight the headphones were £3 each which is a lot if you have more than one that needs them.

Snacks

- again a big must even for the bigger kids. especially for take off and landing kids still don't understand how to un pop their ears and most kids will find this distressing and sometimes it can hurt them the best thing i found was lollipops i had loads left over from our party but you can buy the chubba chubb ones in a multi pack and they are all different flavors as well which again is great if you have fussy kids that don't like the same thing. I would also recommend letting them choose a drink in one of the shops within the airport before you board as well and also get extra bottles of water this usually works out cheaper it isn't as cheap as taking Aldi bottled water but you wont get them past security so i wouldn't bother.

Entertainment packs

- so on our flight we were in economy this meant that you each got about 4 films 4-6 tv programme's and some songs on the tv. which as an adult or older child is fine as you can take a book to read or word searches to kill some of the time, however when you are a small child trapped in one seat and you can't run around and ask the man if you can have a go at steering the plane, this is not ok. They don't seem to like this at all. You could up grade to the premium entertainment pack for £5 but again if there are a few of you that want to do this it will add up. You could also do it for one seat and then when one of them falls asleep do a swap over in the chairs if you only wanted to pay for one. I would also recommend downloading a few different apps and shows on to you tablet. Our favorites are: Cbeebies,  Disney Life and the BBC iplayer most of these when you download them are only valid for 30 days so make sure that you do this within those days other wise you will only have them there and not back. Also the Disney Life app does a 30 day free trial which is a good tip to remember.

Priority boarding

- with certain airlines you can book priority board this is you fast pass through check in if you are travelling with children then i would highly recommend doing this. Standing in queues for long times is exhausting and very hard for adults and children especially young children if there is a shortcut and a way around this then i would take it. This is at a charge though.

Just remember yes you have spent all this time planning and saving for this trip to be the most amazing and magical experience of their lives. This is all new and daunting to them and they are also Extremely excited as well. After all this is all about them right (that's what everyone kept telling me any way). Keep them involved and talk to them explain what is happening and what they are going to do next because walking through a metal detector on your own is very scary even more so if they pick you randomly to go into a different machine. Their holiday starts the minute you wake up to leave your house don't let that magic and excitement disappear.

I would also say about letting them eat what they want on the flight personally i hate plane food so i wouldn't tell my kids that they had to eat it because i wouldn't we all talked about all the food we could have when we got there however the kids meals were lovely and the smelt amazing.

These are just some of the things i could think of that i thought may help others if you know or think of any more please comment so that we can help other parents out as we have to stick together other wise they will smell your fear.