Travelling With Small Children

I absolutely love traveling, it’s always been a passion of mine and having parents who come from opposite ends of the earth (New Zealand and Denmark) it was inevitable that travel would become a major part of my life.

I’ve always been incredibly excited by being around airports and have enjoyed the whole process of travel, right from the moment of check-in and the thrill of receiving my boarding pass, through to finding my seat and having a chat to the person sitting next to me (yes, I am that person).

There is a sense of excitement and adventure that comes with travel, so it was only natural that I would want to share this excitement with my partner and children and for it to become a normal part of their lives as well.

As with everything, however, nothing is ever the same when you experience it with children and the same applies for my much beloved travel.

Back in the day, before I had children, I would always thoroughly enjoy the drive to the airport, brimming with silent, excited anticipation.

Now, I have to do my best to remain calm as my screaming baby protests to yet again being constrained in her car seat and is determined to let all of Brisbane know.

Strolling along casually to the check-in gate is a thing of the past now too.

These days, you will find me flat out running after my one year-old as she heads towards the other end of the terminal and my better half running in the opposite direction trying to prevent our four year-old from steering the trolley and our luggage into oncoming traffic.

There is no longer any talk of knocking back a celebratory holiday beer or coffee before boarding the plane either, as our tiny humans have obviously picked up on our nervous energy and are shrieking through duty free like their life depended on it.

Having small children does come with its advantages, however, as you are now ushered through immigration in lightening speed and are the first to board the plane along with business class.

The fun starts all over again once the plane takes off though, where you’ll find my partner and I tag-teaming the entire three hour flight and chasing our one year-old up and down the aisles, apologising profusely to each and every person she decides to either steal food from or fight them for their earphones.

Finally, throw in gastro to the mix and well, all I can say is that it pays to check the small print on your travel insurance and to ensure that you haven’t been sold some dodgy deal which only covers circumstances where “the airline decides to cancel your flight” (yes my friends, this happened).

So yeah, traveling is amazing and I still love it, but traveling with kids is something unto its own and so absolutely exhausting that I guarantee you will need a holiday after the holiday!