Vacation with children is easy

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Vacation with children is easy
Vacation with children is easy
Anonim

Let's just say that a child's basic need is the safety and stability of the home. Or is it strictly forbidden to move away from bear pattern wallpaper for a few weeks a year? And the child can never go to sleep at ten in the evening instead of eight?

Let's travel with the child instead of being reckless, it's only good for everyone. We can go far or near, by car, train or plane, with or without time difference, we just have to think about what we want.

shutterstock 92215372
shutterstock 92215372

One of the purposes of the agenda is to withstand fluctuations, since everything can turn upside down even at home - a small illness or even a birthday party is enough. On the other hand, we can provide stability to a certain extent even during an Antarctic vacation.

After all, traveling with small children by no means means that only the little one adapts to the big ones, as we expect from him: silently, with a sparkling, inquisitive look, look through six museums and ten churches a day with us, but rather that we look for those acceptable compromises, with the help of which everyone finds joy in the trip.

Agenda: the order is important, not the hour

It is important not to forget that the most important thing for the children is that we are there for them - and during such a trip the family togetherness is very intense!

In the specific agenda, it is not so much the times as the sequence of events that is important for the baby, so that (if possible) sleep is after lunch, drinking milk after bathing and being able to snuggle with the sleeping cat after brushing teeth. Toddlers don't stick to times, but to these habits in a rather conservative way - if, for example, I forget to put the sleeping bag on before the story, Anna warns sternly - but this does not depend at all on whether we are at home or in a hotel room.

Of course, you have to think carefully about what the child needs to go to bed - I don't mean that you have to pack all the rubber ducks, but I, for example, would definitely not leave the book that the baby reads to himself every night at home.

As for daytime naps - the little ones can take a very good nap in the carrier or stroller while the adults are watching the city. The older ones need more rest, but the afternoon nap can be timed for the adult lunch or a visit to the museum, or we can even go back to the accommodation.

Difficult moments are here too

Of course, all this does not mean that there are no difficult moments during a trip - even with a fussy, hysterical child, we should try to follow the hard-to-follow golden rule, which is to remain calm and kind.

And by no means should we blame the problem on our partner, because if we waste our energy on deciding who is responsible for the situation (even if there is someone to blame at all), the child will definitely not calm down.

Rhymes can do wonders with us, especially the horse-riding ones, the discovery of new dogs, cats, birds or even showing their companions depicted in photos and posters. And we usually carry some Miracle Medicine with us just in case - for Anna, the December issue of the children's program magazine Bóbita performed this honorable function for months, but it can also be a small toy or a favorite snack.

Timeshift

If you follow some reasonable rules, the time difference shouldn't be a problem either - switching to meals according to the new time zone will help a lot!

We arrived in Thailand (+6 hours!) Hungarian time in the morning, by which time it was already afternoon in Bangkok. We started right away with lunch, followed by an "afternoon nap" (which was easy, since Anna was tired from the flight). We put him to bed at around 11pm Bangkok time (which made up half of the time difference), the next morning we didn't let him sleep very long - and he went to bed at 9pm that day.

shutterstock 3611104
shutterstock 3611104

The way back was even easier: we introduced one more main meal and a daytime nap, from which we woke him up, and then, before the "final lay down", we tried to keep him awake for a while longer. It's also not a big deal if we don't fully adapt to the time zone during the trip - a few hours shift is fine.

Programs

Kids are full of energy and a desire to explore the world - they are similar to their parents who want to travel - and it is very easy to show them something they are happy about. They can fall into complete ecstasy from the wildlife of a puddle, a fountain, a crane truck or a bird discovered in the corner of a contemporary painting. If we help them find these things, they won't be bored during the adult programs either. I don't mind the fact that in a church it is not the Romanesque style features, but the smell of the flowers placed in the vase that gets my daughter hooked.

Regardless of this, make sure to organize programs for the sake of the child: include a little playground or duck feeding in the park as often as possible, go with them to the zoo, to the playhouse in shopping centers, or even sometimes it's a winner if we stay at the hotel for half a day each, and we play there.

What should we travel with?

Families with small children often have a dilemma about how far they should go with the child and what means of travel they should use. Basically, this is also a matter of habit formation, children from families who are always on the move grow up to go somewhere all the time - traveling is not usually a problem for them. They are the ones who can put into practice the Anglo-Saxon saying: Getting there is half the fun.

shutterstock 97010438
shutterstock 97010438

Basically, it can be said that the choice of means of travel always depends on the destination and the family, we can find arguments for almost everything, except perhaps for long bus trips, which are intense suffering even for adults.

With small children, the car can be a good choice - if you plan the trip in such a way that it can accommodate frequent, longer rest stops, for example at highway rest stops equipped with playgrounds. The train is not a bad choice either: you can stand up, you can walk around, maybe there is even a buffet car, which is always interesting. For the same reason, the boat can be good, unless someone in the family is seasick.

A shorter flight of 1-3 hours can be spent normally with a child of practically any size and in any way accustomed, for many families this is a better solution than a one-day car journey. Long flights can be more problematic, you have to prepare for them, as we wrote about this before. Overall, it also applies to this: if the parent does not cramp and is able to approach the problems that arise creatively, it does not matter why and how long we travel, the point is to find the good in it.

Previous parts of the series:

Traveling with small children 1. – Are they crazy???

Traveling with a small child 2. – Planning and other preparations

Traveling with small children 3. - Flying: the biggest money?

Traveling with small children: no need for a camel caravan

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