Airport Survival with Kids in Tow

Unfortunately, children aren’t the most cooperative, especially at the airport. If you have to bring your children to the airport, there are a few things you can do for a better experience for you and everyone else boarding their plane. Here are some of the best tips we have to offer for airport survival with your kids in tow.

Airport Survival with Kids - Chester Taxis

Plan Ahead

It’s important that you plan your flight around your children’s schedule. This can be helpful in preventing needing to bring a cranky child to the airport, disrupting other travelers. So, take your child’s sleep schedule into consideration and plan your flight around it. You should generally avoid planning to fly around dinner time when your kids will be tired and/or hungry.

Our Manchester Airport Guide and Liverpool Airport Guide will help you with all the information.

Bring a Survival Bag

Unfortunately, most airlines only permit one carry-on and one small bag per passenger. However, you can maximize your space, by making a “survival bag” for your children. This bag should contain wipes, snacks, games, books, sugar-free gum, etc.

Take a Bathroom Break Before Boarding

Even if your children are still in nappies, take a bathroom break before your flight for a diaper change or bathroom break for a more comfortable flight. However, to avoid any accidents on the flight, you should also consider having them wear pull-ups. This can help you experience a more comfortable flight for you and surrounding passengers.

Talk to Your Kids

Most of the time, kids are pretty fearless and are willing to try new things. However, flying can be incredibly scary for them, which is why it’s important to prep them for their flight and avoid any freak-outs during your travels. Talk to your kids about how they should act on their flight and introduce a reward system for behaving on their flight. If your child does act up on the flight, don’t ignore it, talk to them and instruct them how they should behave.

Don’t Let Looks Get to You

Especially at the airport, there are going to be people who don’t appreciate you or your children. However, don’t let their remarks or looks get the best of you. The best advice we can offer you is to simply get in and get out. Just stay positive and focused on getting to where you need to go.

Ensure You’re Ready for Check-In

It’s important that you and your children are fully aware of the check-in and security regulations that your airlines have. You should keep your travel documents within reach, avoid bringing anything that will weigh you down, and take off anything metal before going through the metal detector. However, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get through security. If you end up getting delayed, you should know what your rights are. Fortunately, you can usually find an airline rep at the gate or front desk. With their help, you can figure out how long you’ll be there, more importantly, how long you’ll need to entertain your kids.

Most airports have family areas, facilities, and restaurants that you can kill time at. However, you should research this before arriving at the airport. If there are no restaurants, be sure to bring snacks, spare clothes, and baby wipes for your kids. You should also be sure to arrive a few hours early, so you have plenty of time to check in, feed your kids, and settle before your flight.

Take-off and Landing

During your flight, take-off, and landing can the scariest part of the journey for your kids. However, to prevent them from getting too frightened, try distracting them with a story or using toys. The less scared you seem, the less nervous and terrified they will feel about taking-off and landing in an airplane. However, you should also consider giving them water and/or sugar-free gum to prevent their eardrums from popping due to the ascend. Plus, it will distract them from what’s going on.

Noise Cancelling Headphones

Noise cancelling headphones are a great tool to help quiet your children and infants. Although some children enjoy the noises planes make, others have a hard time falling asleep, and the sounds may feel too harsh on their ears. When you allow your children to use noise cancelling headphones, they can fall asleep faster and drown out the noises of the plan, making flying less scary for them. Plus, if you use Spotify or Apple Music, there are plenty of soft music playlists for you and your children to listen to during the flight.

Reward System

The majority of kids don’t know how to behave on planes, so it’s your job to teach them how to act properly. This includes not kicking the back of seats, talking with their inside voices, asking for permission to go to the bathroom, not having a tantrum, etc. Besides interacting with your kids on the plane in hopes of controlling their attention, you should set a reward system into place as well. This system will reward your children for good behaviour while you’re on the plane. This will not only benefit you but the people around you too. Also, the system is pretty simple, all you have to do is reward them with a piece of candy, snack, or money with good behaviour, such as being quiet, being respectful to other people in the plane, and sitting calmly throughout the entire flight.

Airport Transfers from Chester

Airport transfers with Chester Taxi Service don’t just involve the drop off / pickup basics we try to help you further. All our airport transfers to or from Chester include our meet and greet service. This includes meeting you in the arrivals terminal and help you with you bags which leaves your hands free to coral the kids.

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