With the Easter holidays fast approaching, I thought the timing was right for a blog about how to make travelling with young children as easy as possible. This is particularly for our travel insurance customers with disabled children. Travelling with children can go either way. It can turn into a nightmare for the parents and fellow passengers, or they could behave like little angels and all your fellow passengers smile and say how cute. One thing is for sure. The older or more travelled your children get, the more easily it is to identify the trigger points.
When my son Cameron was younger, it was all about trying to keep him as happy as possible. I also wanted to avoid overstimulating him so he would actually sleep on long train and plane journeys. You don’t want the journey to be so much fun that they are too excited to go to sleep. All you’ll end up with is a tired, overstimulated child, which isn’t pleasant for anyone involved.
In my experience, the key is not to talk too much about the actual journey to get to the holiday destination. Keep things as calm and normal as possible at the airport or train station. Sitting quietly and reading a book with your child while you wait to board can really help keep things calm. Once you are in your seats, make sure you have a favourite night-time toy or blanket handy. This is a great way of encouraging sleep.
Travelling with a disabled child or a child with special needs can compound the problems even more.
While doing some research for this blog, I came across a wonderful blog by Tracey, Mummy to Isabella. Her website, Down in the Jungle with Monkey, is a fantastic source of information for anyone with a disabled child. This blog in particular has some great tips and advice for anyone travelling with a disable child. Isabella is a very well travelled little girl. Through experience, Tracey has some really good tips. The blogs will make you laugh and cry.
As Cameron has got older, he is far easier to reason with. He does behave really well whenever we travel. However, our biggest problem now is travel sickness. Even taking the tablets makes him sick. We have just discovered that as long as he doesn’t play any iPad/computer games, watch any films and steers clear of reading any magazines or books, he is fine! Albeit very bored, anyone for eye spy?
