Tips for Traveling with Young Children

(Written with Marjorie Wild)

​Family travel can be a great summer adventure!  Help your trips be enjoyable experiences by keeping these tips and benefits in mind.  Know that whatever your summer brings, we are wishing you well!​

Travel Tips

Here are some tips on how to prepare:

1. Plan destinations and activities that are fun and age appropriate for your children; schedule naps/rest times and meals to avoid "hangry" kids and adults
2. Share pictures, books, or videos about the places you will visit. Talk about things to look for when you are there
3. Practice in your hometown the safety strategies you will need on the trip, like holding hands to cross streets, and staying together in crowds
4. When packing, even very young children can help by choosing a favorite shirt or other clothing item to bring.  It's essential to include a travel-appropriate comfort item to soothe them when they are tired or need reassurance in a different place.  By the way, our eepworm toys make the perfect "emotional support toys" for travel - they're small, cuddly, washable, and allowed where animals may not be!!
5. Be sure your family can carry or transport your luggage. If your children are able, let them carry their own small backpack or wheeled bag (allowing for help when needed!)
6. If you will be visiting family that you don’t often see, use pictures to remind children who they will see and to strengthen friend/family connections.  Role play expected greetings and empower children to greet relatives in their preferred ways.

While on the trip:

• Let children know the plans for the day, walking them through what to expect; use "first...,then..." and "before...,after..." language rather than times for young children
• Make adjustments as necessary (a needed nap, care for an injury, a missed train); model for children how to “roll with it” when things don’t go as planned.  Unexpected situations are great times for practicing deep breathing and other mindfulness strategies!

Family vacations can reinforce our connections and reassure children “I am here for you!” in unfamiliar places.  That's good for everyone's emotional well-being!

Here are the 6 tips for getting ready again:

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Are you traveling to a theme park this summer?  If so, here are some ideas that may make your trip rich with family memories – even the funny and unexpected ones!

Tips for Trips to Theme Parks​:

• Plan a family vacation considering the ages and abilities of the children in your family. If your child is at the stage where they are frightened by characters in costume, save the trip to a theme park for another time.
• Plan for ride requirements for your children of different ages/height to avoid disappointment that they cannot ride specific rides.
• If possible, divide and conquer, with one adult riding rides with bigger kids and another taking a slower pace with little ones. AND balance activities so that everyone enjoys some activities together, older kids sharing an experience with younger siblings.
• Some family trips include grandparents, extended family or even a family babysitter to help with supervision and to share family time together!
• Plan according to the needs of your family. You know whether your children need a long midday nap or whether they can nap in a stroller in a crowd. Plan accordingly.

The choice Marjorie’s family made was to first visit larger parks when her young children were no longer afraid of costumed characters but  young enough to enjoy the “magic” of meeting favorite characters! And there was still plenty of family fun when they were older kids!

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Benefits of Family Travel

Travel brings new perspectives.
Traveling with children can be a challenge, but providing them with these varied experiences is well worth our effort!  Travel boosts children’s development, especially their social and emotional learning.  It literally expands their world and exposes them to different ways of doing things - speaking, dressing, eating, sleeping, etc.  Children - and adults - may become more empathetic, appreciative of cultural and individual differences, and open to new experiences.
We hope summer travel brings you and your children a new way of seeing!

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Travel cements connections and builds brains.

​Traveling and taking adventures help us to grow!  We humans are natural explorers, and our brains are wired to desire new experiences - to be physically active, especially in nature, and to use our brains to make sense of it all.  We also have a primary need to be in relationships with others.  
So when we travel with our families, we’re tapping into these basic desires and needs.  Going on family adventures is good for our children, and it’s good for us adults, too!

Traveling supports strong brain development, but so does making any changes in our routines! 
Babies pay more attention to novel experiences, and so do we.  To stimulate our children’s brains (as well as our own), try taking an adventure soon, even if it’s finding a way to disrupt your routine, like having a “backwards day” or “opposite day.”​

If you want to travel but your budget doesn’t allow for flights or long road trips with hotel stays, try camping.  It was a favorite form of adventuring for my husband, my daughter and me when she was younger - and it was definitely budget-friendly.  Now that I’m older, I must admit I prefer the comfort of a real bedroom and adjacent bathroom at night, but I still very much enjoy our family hikes!  ​

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We're wishing you a summer of fun family travel!

One wish for you is that summer travel brings you renewed appreciation of the people and the everyday routines in both your work life and your family life!

​When we travel, sometimes we appreciate our work and home lives and the people in them even more.
Many years ago, I went on a week-long trip with a friend, leaving my school-age daughter behind with my husband for his first stint solo-parenting.  He was often away on work trips, and left all of the parenting up to me.  Before we left, I was thinking that my time away would help him to appreciate me more as the primary caregiver of our child.  What happened instead was that I appreciated him more for being a more compatible travel companion!
What renews your appreciation for the people and things in your life?

Another wish is that we all better appreciate what we have, even if we can’t get away and travel this summer.  Sometimes when we travel or even when our routines change, our appreciation can grow - not only of people but of things as well.  When we have been away from our own beds, our daily schedules, our preferred foods, our language, etc., we miss all the familiarity of our home or work spaces and routines.  But we may also become happier with what we have been used to - even the mundane or boring parts of our lives!  As the saying goes, “There’s no place like home!

Whether your summer plans include a family trip, a needed grown-up getaway, or just a staycation, may you enjoy it all - the going somewhere and the being back home again!

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References & Resources

Online Psychology Degree Guide.  (n.d.).  10 things to know about the psychology of travel & adventure.  www.onlinepsychologydegree.info/psychology-of-travel-adventure/
Weiner, R. (2023, May 26). Surviving vacation with kids. 
learnplaygrowconsulting.com/blog/survivingvacationwithkids