In a former life I was a nanny, and then a maternity nurse. I spent a lot of time giving help and advice to new parents, despite having no children of my own. Which seems like a bonkers thing to do but goodness, I had boundless energy and the ability to not be embarrassed by anything. Those are good skills to have when you are on a 12 hour flight with a small child that won’t settle.
In fact, making long plane journeys with small babies became one of my core skills. I flew to Mauritius, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and through a lot of Europe without any major difficulties. I did it well enough to be recommended to other employers, keen to have someone take the strain whilst they worked through time zones.
You can imagine then how I approached our first flight as parents- a trip of 45 minutes to Jersey, to “see how it goes”. I planned meticulously, even using my own Flight Checklist document, created for parents I had worked for in the past, and who wanted pointers for making journeys with their children without me. Naturally it all went horribly wrong. The then-Pocket-Dictator produced a poonami that saw us spend 45 minutes in the baby change facility washing her sneakers under the scalding hot water that came out of both taps, and having to run for the plane that we had allowed plenty of time to make. The saving grace was the innumerable ziplock bags I had packed everything in, and the pyjamas PD travelled in because she had rendered her travel outfit unusable.
That ziplock tip is one of many you can find over on the Tombola site where I have been interviewed about my tips for flying with babies and small children. Head on over and see what you think. Would you add anything? Have you had any travel disasters?
You can also check out these posts: How to Keep Kids Occupied On Long Journeys
*Disclosure: I received compensation for my work with Tombola, but the tips are honest and- I hope- helpful.
Go on! You know you want to tell me what you think!