Air travel with kids, especially young ones, can be a hassle any time of the year and any time of the day. But with more and more families surviving on tight budgets, there are more and more families flying early in the morning or late at night. We are no exception, it seems every airplane going where we want to these days leaves early in the morning or late in the evening.
Traveling around Europe, we used to take early and late flights often in order to get maximum visiting time wherever we were going but that was when our girls were littler and we didn’t yet have Doodle and life in general was a lot easier!
So if you’re stuck taking an early, late or even red-eye flight with your small children, what can you do to make the journey easier for everyone?
For early morning flights:
Let the kids sleep as long as possible.
Have their clothes ready the night before and when you wake them up, slip them into their clothes, have them go potty and head to the airport.
Eat breakfast at the airport.
When traveling out of Dublin, there was a great little coffee shop we loved right pat security. I would pack some fruit and muffins or other pastry and we would eat breakfast at the cafe while hubby and I enjoyed our morning coffee.
Be patient.
Traveling is one time I bend our regular rules and early mornings are hard for everyone. Keep in mind that no one is at their best when they’re tired and try to be calm and level headed if your little one loses it.
Encourage rest time on the airplane.
Most little ones still need their regular amount of rest time so if you can get them to sleep a little on the plane, they should be better when you get where you are going.
For late evening flights:
Eat at the airport.
Again, when we are flaying out around dinner time, we eat before we get on the plane. It not only gives us something to do while we wait to board but everyone is more cooperative with a full tummy when it’s time to get on the plane.
Use car seats on the plane.
I’m sure it seems repetitive, as I always recommend car seats on the plane for every child as long as possible, but at night it’s as much about convenience as safety. As I’ve learned, even if you don’t have a lap baby, any child not in a car seat will end up on your lap anyways!
Encourage sleeping on the plane.
Especially if it’s your child’s usual bedtime, let them know they need to sleep on the plane since they will have to be woken up when you land and won’t get a good night’s sleep. Try to make sleeping on the plane as “homelike” as possible by bringing any blankie, small animals and even sound machines that they are used to having for sleeping at home.
Pin it!
