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Traveling with Kids {Episode 22}
98 Plays6 years ago
It's summer time and vacations are upon us! Traveling with kids isn't always easy or stress-free but this episode includes some tried and true tips for you to get the most out of traveling with toddlers, teens and everyone in between.
Whether you're traveling via car or plane, staying in Airbnb's or hotels, there's something in this episode to help everyone better enjoy the magical chaos that is vacationing with the whole family!
Audrey's Recommendations:
I spy books
Charles Dickens audiobooks
Harry Potter audiobooks
Bonnie's Recommendations:
Magnet Toys
Chronicles of Narnia Audiobook on CD or Audible
Blog posts: How to Survive a Family Vacation and How to Entertain a Toddler on a Plane
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Audience Engagement
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. And we're homeschooling moms to a combined total of 18 children. We know firsthand that motherhood is full of crazy chaos and overwhelming obligations, but it should also be full of love and laughter. Regardless of where you are on your journey, come join us as we work together to find joy in the chaos of motherhood.
00:00:31
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to Outnumber the Podcast. Today is episode 22 and we are talking about traveling with kids. The good, the bad, the ugly, right?
00:00:42
Speaker
Fun times. We are going to start by reading one of our favorite reviews. This one is by B. Lawrence 08. She says, great podcast. And as I listen to each inspiring episode, I can't help but wonder how these two rock star women find the time to even record this podcast, let alone come up with excellent content. That's so sweet.
00:01:03
Speaker
Each episode is open and honest and motivating at the same time. It's nice to know that I'm not the only mom who has crazy moments and I always appreciate the tips and tricks to help find joy in motherhood. Thanks for putting something out there that this mom of six can actually relate to. Thank you so much for that wonderful review. It seriously makes our days when you guys leave a review. So if you haven't done so yet, we would love it. There is instructions on how to do that on our Instagram account if you haven't ever done one. So go check it out.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, because when you leave a review, it helps other people find us in the podcast app because it puts us higher in the ratings. Right. It's not just to fluff up our ego. But it does too. Yeah, so thank you on both accounts. But yeah, no, it really does help get the word out there because we really want to find moms who are struggling and who are looking for a way to enjoy motherhood.
Traveling with Kids: The Chaos & Humor
00:01:53
Speaker
So we would love any shout outs on social media or any reviews.
00:01:57
Speaker
All right, so that leads us into our humor segment. I did want to say that Kim Coffin's story on her guest episode, which was episode number 10, is pretty epic about traveling with kids. Do you remember that one, Audrey?
00:02:12
Speaker
So if you guys haven't listened to that one, go listen to that one. But I will share just a quick one. When I was a teenager, my parents took my brother and I... I can't even remember if any of our other siblings were there. I just remember my brother and I. I'm the oldest and he has the next one in line. To San Francisco.
00:02:28
Speaker
And apparently we did something naughty. I can't remember what it was, but we lost the privilege of going on a boat out to some little island. And so we had to stay back in town. I think they just left us in the car. I mean, we were like 16 or something, so it wasn't a big deal. But we just had to stay behind and be bored while my parents went on this fun trip.
00:02:47
Speaker
Day trip. The sad thing was it ended up being a super rocky boat ride and they both basically threw up the entire way there and the entire way back.
00:03:00
Speaker
So just share that as a precursor that we all know traveling with children is tough, whether it's the children themselves being naughty or some other circumstance. Let's just promise that with that. There's gonna be bodily fluids. There's gonna be crying. It's gonna end in tears, but hopefully we can have a fun time through it all.
00:03:20
Speaker
Oh, definitely. Okay, so travel with kids is inevitable, generally. We're going to have to go somewhere with our kids who can't stay home forever, but we can use certain tools to make it less painful. Yeah, we have basically four topics we're covering today. Number one, how to prepare for a trip, both mentally, emotionally, and physically. Tips for driving places with your kids, tips for flying with them, and then also managing your expectations.
00:03:47
Speaker
Here's a hint, lower them, right? That's our byline. Lower your expectations.
Preparing Kids for Travel
00:03:53
Speaker
Yes, always. We need to put that like in our intro or something. Yeah, and don't forget, lower those expectations. Okay, so let's start with preparation. Before you go on the trip, you need to let kids know what sort of behavior is expected while you're on the trip because
00:04:16
Speaker
If you stay home a lot, like parents with a lot of kids do, or maybe, I don't know, all parents with kids do.
00:04:23
Speaker
that going out is new and exciting and they get sort of out of control of their emotions and behaviors. So it's good to do a lot of prep ahead of time. So definitely hype up the positive and the exciting parts of the trip and downplay the negative and remind them that vacation privileges can be taken away for bad behavior. So just like your parents left you.
00:04:47
Speaker
They might not get to go, you know, if you got a five day pass to Disneyland, they might have to stay home for part of it or stay back at the hotel for part of it or something. Along with that, like we've mentioned before, just remember to give consequences that you're willing to follow through with, right? Every mother's done that before.
00:05:07
Speaker
We are never going on vacation again. You're so naughty. Yeah, well, you probably will, but maybe something more manageable, like we're not going to go out for ice cream this afternoon if you can't control yourself in this restaurant, et cetera. Okay. The next tip for getting ready is in your planning. So plan kid-friendly stuff and don't plan something that your kids just aren't going to be able to do.
00:05:30
Speaker
A hike is not going to be a great activity for a two-year-old and so on. You know your kids and what they can do and what they can't do. And then expect the kids to act their worst when they're away from their normal routines and their normal beds and their normal food. I know we talked about that a lot in picky eating. When you travel, they get away from there. No, it wasn't picky eating. It was tantrums. We talked about that in tantrums. When they get away from their normal food and their normal beds and their normal
00:05:56
Speaker
situation, that's when tantrums can come in. So keep that in mind that you don't have to do all the things that your vacation might offer, but plan kid-friendly stuff.
Flexibility & Challenges of Large Families
00:06:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'll share something there. We planned a trip to Disneyland several years ago. We're taking a bunch of little kids. We planned for three days at the park, and then we thought maybe if everyone's still up for it, we'll go to the beach on the way home. Well, by day two, by the end of day two, we were wiped. We were so tired. The kids were done. They'd seen most of what they wanted to see, and I thought another day, it's probably just going to push it.
00:06:27
Speaker
Even though we'd paid for the tickets, we chose to opt out of the park that third day and drove to the beach and had a full day at the beach instead of just a couple hours. And it was probably the best part of the whole trip. In fact, to my husband, Chagrin, the kids were like, oh, the beach was the best part. He's like, not the $1,000 tickets to Disneyland. Great. Next time we're going to the free beach. So just to stay flexible in your plans.
00:06:52
Speaker
Yeah. So when I look about and think about travel, I have two basic problems that come up that I have to plan for. Basically, travel with kids is a problem of confinement because you can't get away from each other if you're in a car or an airplane or train, whatever. When you're getting to your destination, it's a confinement problem. So to look at it that way, what can I do to make this confinement easier for my kids? That's one thing that
00:07:19
Speaker
enters into the equation for me. And then the second thing is for me, travel is we're out and about with nine kids and everybody's looking at us. And if the kids are having a meltdown or something, I have this desire to make a good impression of large families. And sometimes it's okay for me to express that to my kids. Guys, not a lot of people see families with nine kids all the time and they will
00:07:44
Speaker
you know, judge nine families by how we behave. But then also, what's our tagline, Bonnie? Lower your expectations. Exactly. Exactly. In fact, I wanted to share something there. I think that for me personally, I think a lot of moms do this as well, that my reaction to my kids naughty behavior when we're out and about is directly correlated to how good I want people to view me, right? Yeah.
00:08:07
Speaker
how I want to come off to the strangers around me, which is silly because clearly my kids matter more to me than some stranger's opinion. But it can be really embarrassing and really frustrating to have your kids act at their worst when you're out in front of a whole new audience.
Managing Child Behavior on Trips
00:08:22
Speaker
And I like to remind myself and others that there's really two kinds of naughty behaviors that come out of kids. One is
00:08:29
Speaker
really, truly bad behavior that is unacceptable in any situation. And number two is just childlike behavior. So a vast majority of what my kids do on a day-to-day basis drives me crazy because it's just kid stuff. They jump on the couch and they talk too loud and they leave their toys on the floor.
00:08:48
Speaker
Is that innately wrong? No, it's not innately wrong. It will probably destroy my couch and drive me crazy to have their stuff on the floor. But it's not innately wrong. It's just what kids do because they haven't yet learned the social expectations that you sit on a couch and you don't yell in someone's ear and you pick up after yourself. So that's a really good reminder.
00:09:06
Speaker
If you do, you might not stay married for long, just FYI. That's a really good reminder to give yourself and your spouse and the adult traveling with you before you leave to remember to try to only discipline the truly naughty stuff and the child-like stuff we can just kind of casually remind them, oh, let's be aware of what everyone else around us is feeling. If you talk too loud, it's going to be hard for them to rest or whatever, you know, but to try not to be so hard on those
00:09:32
Speaker
behaviors that just come naturally to them because they're little. Yeah, and honestly, reminding myself that that's not going to make a very enjoyable vacation for me either if I'm all uptight and tense about what everybody's thinking about us and then trying to get the kids not to jump on the couch or raise their voice or whatever. That's going to ruin the vacation for me. I'm going to come home and need a vacation from my vacation. Exactly. You're going to need to come home and take a couple of Xanax. That's for sure.
00:09:57
Speaker
So moving on to our second portion is the tips we have to share for driving with your kids. Okay, so I am actually planning a long road trip with my kids in two days. So this is really timely for me as I'm planning everything. We're going to be driving 10 hours, which will probably translate into 13 with all our stops.
00:10:15
Speaker
And the first thing I'm doing is breaking our trip up into manageable portions even before we start going. So generally what I do, and I think most people's default is just to start driving and wait until enough people have to pee and then you stop, right?
00:10:29
Speaker
But that's really hard for kids. They don't know
Entertaining Kids During Travel
00:10:32
Speaker
what to expect and kids need routine. They need expectations. So what I've decided to do this time is I'm planning out the route ahead of time and choosing what little towns will stop in ahead of time. So I will tell them, all right, this is our long stretch. We're going to have to make it three hours. Okay. You guys see the clock? We're going to make it from 11.
00:10:49
Speaker
When this says two o'clock, we're going to stop or close to it. You're going to have to hold it that long or you're going to have to be patient that long. We'll stop, we'll get a snack, we'll run around, et cetera. And I'm hoping that that's going to make things a little bit easier, especially on the little ones that don't have any sense of time.
00:11:06
Speaker
That sounds like a really smart way to do it. Yeah, yeah. And when we do stop, there are a couple of things that we always do. Number one, always potty, obviously. And I make a deal with my little ones ahead of time that we always go to the bathroom when there's a bathroom available. And this is a really hard thing for kids to understand. They think, no, I go when I have to go. I don't have to go right now.
00:11:25
Speaker
But if you don't go right now, you're going to have to go in 20 minutes when we're back on the road. So we usually make a little deal. I have one or two that are really against this idea. So we'll say, we'll buy a snack if you go potty. You have to go potty. So always a bathroom, always some place to let them run around. Sometimes it's just a grassy area next to a gas station. I'll say, okay, we're going to run back and forth across this as fast as you can. See how many times you can do it. Make a little game out of it.
00:11:49
Speaker
And then even if we don't have to eat, it's fun to just buy a little snack. So I'm going to go in and get a bag of pretzels we can share or something to make it exciting to stop. Yes. Hey, Bonnie, I wanted to point out, I added down here special travel tips for large families. Oh, okay, good. Yeah, good. Perfect. No, just keep going. Okay.
00:12:09
Speaker
I also like to possibly make stops happen at meaningful places if time allows. So if you've got a little bit of extra time, maybe you can stop at some sort of a landmark or something that will make it a little bit interesting for kids. One of my kids' favorite memories is stopping at the big dinosaurs between here in California. We live in Arizona. I don't know if anybody's familiar with that. I don't even know what the stop's called, but if you've driven past it, you've probably seen it. It's just two giant dinosaurs that somebody built and you can go touch them and take pictures with them. My little boys love that, so something fun like that.
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, we usually put at least one Cabela's in it as a stop for us because my kids love to go in and look at all the taxidermy and the fish. That's a great idea. Yeah, great idea. I like to limit their entertainment options in the car as well. And the main reason for this is
00:12:55
Speaker
Everything you give them will end up on the floor. Everything. And if they're little, then they're just going to scream about it the whole time. So what we generally do is pack some snacks, either snacks for each row or even individual bags for each kid. And then we have a movie in the car that we usually alternate between watching a movie and then we turn it off for a couple of hours and we'll play like old fashioned games that we played growing up, like the license plate game or the alphabet game where you try to find alphabets on signs, that kind of thing.
00:13:24
Speaker
Everybody gets stuck on Q. Yeah, always. It's always Q or X. No, there's lots of exits. There's lots of exits, not X, Q. And then also just quiet time or quiet playtime. So sometimes the little ones just need no stimulation to fall asleep or rest a little bit. So that's important to have a little bit of quiet time. And I usually just give them one toy, one little dinosaur to play with or one little doll or a drawing pad or a book, et cetera. It's not all the things because they're just going to drop them and cry.
00:13:55
Speaker
Right, because then with nine kids they can trade, so they get tired of their one thing, they can switch with somebody else. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
00:14:02
Speaker
The other thing that my kids love to do and really helps the road trip is follow along on a map. So now that we have phones that do this, it's really fun for me that I have my phone on a little magnet dock on my dash. So I'll put it on that dock and I'll pull up the maps and I'll say we're the blue dot and our next stop is the red dot and they get to follow along in real time, which is really helpful for antsy kids that just want to get out of the car.
Flying with Kids: Tips & Strategies
00:14:25
Speaker
Um, but you can also give them an old fashioned map. That's pretty fun. Give them a pencil and print out a map and say, see if you can find us. We just passed.
00:14:32
Speaker
Tucson. Can you find Tucson? Where's Tucson? So it's kind of like a little seek and find activity and then they get excited when they see their current stop coming up. Also cuts down on that. Are we there yet? Yes, exactly. Look at the map. Does it look like we're not there yet? I also like to, if you have a variety of ages in the car, I like to ask for the big kids participation and keeping the younger ones quiet and happy.
00:14:57
Speaker
This is especially helpful if you're a solo driver, which I will be on this trip, so that's going to be fun. And to have even break them up into buddies. Number one, your buddy is number four. Number two, your buddy is number five. And they can just be responsible for making sure that kid's water is filled, their snack bag is filled, and they're not freaking out too much.
00:15:18
Speaker
And then lastly, make sure that there's something for you to listen to. So this is especially good tip. If you're the solo driver, I love listening to audio books in the car. It makes things go super fast. It also makes me unavailable for the yelling. Okay. So kids love to, you know, fight or yell about something and I'll just say, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm listening right now. Work it out. And it's probably the reason my husband has always driven on long trips when we go anyplace because he doesn't want to be the snack path or outer.
00:15:47
Speaker
So I love listening to something when I'm in the car. Yeah, you could go back and listen to all our previous episodes. We're getting quite a few now. Yeah, it would probably take me 10 hours. Yeah. Well, you know what's really cute is my 10-year-old has discovered our podcast and started listening while she's folding laundry. And so I'm not in there listening with her, but I'll walk past and I'll hear some of the stuff from the past episodes like, huh, we said some pretty good stuff. That's cute. That's cute.
00:16:16
Speaker
All right, now we're going to talk about tips for flying. Number one tip is pack light. You're probably going to be packing kids and their stuff. So how much can you carry? That's how much you should pack. Right. And how much can you carry at a dead run across two terminals?
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah. But then there's some special considerations with flying. So you have to anticipate security and other hassles and ensure nothing gets lost or left behind through security. But also the first time a kid goes through security, it can be kind of scary for them. Why are these people looking at me? Why is that machine beeping?
00:16:54
Speaker
Why does he have to go over me with that wand? Why do I have to take my shoes off? Maybe talk through some of that stuff with your kid first so they don't have a meltdown through security, which draws attention to you and your family.
00:17:12
Speaker
When you're traveling through an airport, the easiest thing to do is wear the baby. I know that always helps me because I feel a little bit, um, comforted or a connection that I know at least where one of my kids is cause they're strapped to my body. There's at least one you're not going to lose. Oh, and then you can gate check your luggage and car seats. You don't want to have to try to wrestle kids and all that on the plane too. So that's a good tip. Yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker
Just like driving, you want to keep your entertainment options small. They do almost all airplanes, all flights do have the screens in the seat in front of you now. And so just put on a movie and they can watch it. There is some entertainment options there for them is what I'm saying. But then I have, because we don't have a television and we don't have screens or movies regularly at our house, my kids kind of get
00:18:05
Speaker
sort of tapped out on that. They couldn't do a six hour plane ride staring at a screen the whole time. They're just going to kind of go bonkers. So you do need some other entertainment options, but keep them small because again, they're going to drop them. You're going to have to go crawling under the seat of the people behind you. Which is super fun when you're pregnant, I will mention. You think you can't bend over in those seats normally. Try a seven month baby belly. Sorry, that crayon has gone the way of all the earth. Sorry, son. We're not getting it back.
00:18:35
Speaker
Excuse me, excuse me. Pardon me. And then let each child or responsible child who can carry it themselves and keep track of it, bring a small bag with snacks and a book. They do have snacks on an airplane, but never enough when you have kids and not the right kind. So just keep that in mind. And if you can pack them ahead of time.
00:19:00
Speaker
because you didn't used to be able to take like a baby bottle through security, but you can now. Um, and they have this special machine that they put it in so that they make sure it's not anything other than what should be in a baby. Yeah. Yeah. They're usually really flexible with, they're usually really flexible with a pre-made baby bottles with breast milk and also with snacks for toddlers. Um, so even like a little juice, you can usually convince them as long as it's unopened.
00:19:27
Speaker
to let you through because that's what the baby needs. So that's nice. Oh yeah. And I was going to say that going through security with a baby wrapped on you, just FYI, there is a special precaution. They have a light beam or something. They run over your hands to make sure when you have a baby strapped onto you, they don't make you take the baby off.
00:19:49
Speaker
But they run this over your hands to make sure there's no residue of bomb components on your hands. It's a real baby in there. Anyway. Who knew, right? All right. And then the last tip for taking stuff along is you keep the books and the toys for the younger kids so nothing gets lost. If they have a bag full of stuff, they'll go through it in five minutes and be bored and drop everything on the floor. And there you are crawling under the seats again.
00:20:16
Speaker
And then get to know your seat mates or the people in front of you or behind you and be friendly and open about your kids' needs. Sometimes I have traveled with a baby and they kind of roll their eyes and cross their fingers that you're not sitting down next to them and you do. It can be a little tricky of a situation traveling with kids. But let them know you'll do your best to keep them happy.
00:20:42
Speaker
and they're going to have to maybe apply a little more patience than they would if a business professional was sitting next to them. Yeah. I've seen a lot of nasty attitudes too when I get on a plane with a little kid, but I think being open and kind about it goes a long way just to say, hey, I'm doing the best I
Managing Expectations & Emotions
00:20:57
Speaker
can. I'm so sorry that I had to bring my baby along. I hope he behaves, but if he doesn't, I'd appreciate your patience. Thanks so much. And a big smile can go a long way in keeping people happy around you.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah. It also makes you a real person and them a real person. They're less likely to be nasty to you. Yeah, exactly. Right. One of the last times when my husband and I were traveling, just us and the baby, we couldn't get seats together.
00:21:25
Speaker
So we got on the plane and, you know, right away people see that you're not together and they're like jumping. Oh, here, sit next to, here, you can have my seat. I'll go sit back there. I don't know if they wanted us to be together. They didn't want to be by the baby, but whatever. Either way, who works? So then again, like in the car, have a big kid, be the younger kid's buddy for entertainment and for comforting both on the plane, but also through the airport. Um, you know, on the plane, they're going to have to be confined most of the time and definitely at
00:21:55
Speaker
Take off and landing so they might need to be sitting next to a big kid for comfort and then the last tip Tips we have is for clearing the kids ears. You've got to think about this ahead of time Kids don't know that I mean they've never if they've never been up in a plane before they haven't experienced the pressurizing of the ear canal and so they might need help a baby should nurse on takeoff and landing that'll pressurize their ears if you're nursing your baby, of course and
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, toddlers, you get them to either drink water, take a drink of water that'll clear their ears or chew gum. That's another one that'll help clear ears. Do you guys have any more tips? We usually do the gum thing because everybody's always excited to chew gum. So any chance they can get, here you go kid, or even a sucker or a lollipop or something, they'll be swallowing their saliva with it and that helps too. Yeah. Okay. So that moves us on to managing the expectations of traveling. And like we mentioned before,
00:22:54
Speaker
you basically just have to lower your expectations and expect things to be tough. You also have to realize that whatever issues kids deal with at home, they're going to deal with the same issues on vacation. It's not like you go on vacation, there's this magic wand and everybody's going to behave, right? If anything, it's going to be harder. Yeah. If anything is going to be harder because they're out of their normal routine and out of their familiar environment. So for example,
00:23:18
Speaker
Two kids don't sleep well together at home. You know, they're naughty and never go to sleep. They're not going to do that well on vacation. You know, you're going to have to separate them on vacation if possible too. Sometimes that's not totally possible. Obviously, if you have a small hotel room or something, but try your best to make things as similar to home as possible.
00:23:35
Speaker
I like to also make sure that we're doing enough downtime or quiet time. Obviously, babies need naps. They don't usually get them as much on vacation. But if you can plan for some quiet time each day while you're rushing around to all the activities and family reunions and amusement parks, that can go a long way in helping kids to survive the whole day.
00:23:54
Speaker
Also, make sure that you're bringing special loveys or blankets or toys that kids usually need at home, especially for bedtime. I wrote a post about getting kids to sleep on vacation too and that's just really important that you have those usual things that keep them feeling safe and secure. White noise is another good tool for that or anything else that keeps kids comfortable. A little portable fan, for example.
00:24:18
Speaker
And just be aware up front that there's going to be some awesome, really great, exciting moments while you travel with your kids and also some really terrible ones. There's going to be moments where you're thinking, this is the worst idea I've ever had. And then you'll wake up in the morning refreshed again and go, this is so great. We should do this more often. So just don't let the bad ones affect your emotions. Try to try to be the emotional adult in the family, you know, and kids will remember a great time, which reminds me of a quick little follow up about that story I shared earlier when my parents got sick on the boat ride.
Strategies for Large Families
00:24:49
Speaker
Apparently, that one naughty episode wasn't the only thing we did wrong on that trip. Apparently, there were some other stuff, too. But my mom said that she purposely focused on being very emotionally neutral on that trip. So when we were doing naughty things, she just was like, oh, that's too bad. You're going to lose this privilege. And we all had great memories of the trip. She's like, you don't remember that you lost this privilege? No, I don't.
00:25:11
Speaker
She just said she really believed it was because she stayed calm, even though we were being hellions. So there you go. Yeah, stay positive. Okay. Now we have some special travel tips for large families. Something we like to do when we travel is we use a system of partners. And so before we leave on the trip, we say, okay, number one and number five, you're going to be partners this whole trip. And anytime number five, you need something, you're going to go to number one.
00:25:41
Speaker
Number one, when it's bedtime, you're going to go help. Number five, get her pajamas on and brush her teeth and whatever. And then we have enough older kids and younger kids that this system works really good for us, a system of partners for the whole trip. And it also helps me. I'm kind of a counter when I'm out, especially when I'm out and away from home. So it's easier to count pairs. I mean, you have fewer numbers to count. Counting to nine is so hard.
00:26:10
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, counting pairs is great. And the other thing I would suggest along those lines, especially if you have smaller children and maybe not quite so many that can be responsible for another kid, is to divide the kids up and give you and your spouse specific kids to be in charge of. So we did that when we went to Disneyland. We had me, my husband, and our 19 year old sitter was with us.
00:26:29
Speaker
So each of us was in charge of two or three kids. So that way I didn't have to constantly count nine or I guess it was eight at the time, eight over and over and over. I just counted three and my husband counted three and my sitter counted two. So as long as we were all there, all the adults were there and we counted for their kids and it made things a little bit easier. Yeah. Yep. And then I think I got this next tip from actually you guys trip to Disneyland. Didn't you make your kids like all matching shirts or something?
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah, we did buy, I think we just bought all the same color Disney shirts at Target or Walmart or something, and that was really nice to be able to see them from a distance. Hats are good that way too because you see them in a crowd. Yeah, so if everybody's got the same bright neon yellow shirt on in a crowd, they're easier to pick out. Your kids, it just helps me with mommy anxiety being able to count my kids. Right, right.
00:27:18
Speaker
Oh, I'll also share that when it comes to crowds, so airports, amusement parks, zoos, et cetera, I love to have some sort of identifying marker on my younger kids, the ones that like to wander or not pay attention to where the family's going. So a simple, super ghetto way to do this is just to Sharpie your phone number on your kid's arm. So we've done that a couple of times because then if they get lost, I say, you get lost, you go to a mom with kids and tell her you need to call your mom.
00:27:44
Speaker
So I'm like, go find them out with kids and then I'll get a phone call. Another option is, you know, like sometimes we've made medical ID bracelets with my name and number on them and given it to them. Just something that they can, you know, if a stranger finds them, even older kids, even a seven or eight year old that normally knows your phone number can get really panicked in a situation like that and not be able to recall it. And then like you were mentioning earlier, everybody goes to the bathroom at every stop. Doesn't matter if you don't have to go, you sit and you try.
00:28:12
Speaker
Then just a heads up, if you have a large family and you have a night on the road in between wherever you're going, just be aware that you probably are not going to be able to get all your kids in one hotel room. Unless you try to sneak all of them in. I will neither confirm nor deny whether we have done that.
00:28:35
Speaker
Well, it is hard. You've got a bunch of little kids and they're like, oh, four people per room. And you're like, okay, so there's the two-year-old sleeps by herself in the next room? Uh-huh. Okay, sure. Right, right, right. Yeah. Sometimes you can get lucky enough to get those adjoining rooms where they'll have a door in between. But if not, yeah, you're going to have either a big kid or another adult to stay in another room with the littles because that's tricky.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah, the last hotel we stayed in didn't have any rooms with those adjoining doors. That was upsetting. Yeah, that's frustrating. So you have to stay halfway across the hotel from your family? Oh, well, we had rooms next to each other. There was just no door in between. So we had to go out in the hallway around to each other's rooms, which was like, you know, we had to then go over, okay, you don't open the door unless you first look through the peephole. Right. Then you got kids running in and out in the hall and you're like, oh, please don't get lost or let a stranger in. Yeah.
00:29:29
Speaker
Do you have any other special travel tips for large families? I would just end this section with also more expectation lowering. You know, there's just a lot of things that you can't do with a large family as feasibly as with a small one. But there are still lots of fun things that you can do. So try not to do things that are going to require
00:29:50
Speaker
I'll just say this. In a large family, it usually means that the oldest and the youngest are pretty far apart in age. So there's not a ton of things that a 17-year-old will love as much as a one-year-old, right? So try to find activities you can do on vacation that everyone will enjoy. A boat ride, or a trip walking around the zoo, or going to a splash pad at your local park, something like that. Unlike maybe an amusement park where one kid wants to go ride this crazy roller coaster and all your babies just need a nap.
00:30:20
Speaker
It just gets tricky trying to keep everybody happy that way.
Embracing Family Travel Chaos
00:30:23
Speaker
Yeah, and that's a good segue into our recommendations for this week because two of my recommendations are for audiobooks when you travel in a vehicle together that everybody can listen to from the two-year-old up to the 17, 18-year-old. They kind of catch everybody's attention and we've had success
00:30:42
Speaker
with audiobooks by Charles Dickens. They're a little advanced for the two year old, but not so advanced that you can't pause it and explain to them if they're interested in what's going on. And like the five year old and the seven year old, 10 year old, oh, they just love them, eat them up. And it's still interesting to adults. You know, you're not listening to Barney songs for hours. Yeah. You know, the one that
00:31:02
Speaker
The one that we have in our car that we all love is the Narnia Chronicles. We have those on CD because I like to listen to my phone when the kids are listening to something. So I don't like to plug my phone in because then my phone's not available for me. But I don't know why we haven't done Harry Potter audio books yet because all my kids love Harry Potter. So that's a great idea. Yeah. That's my second recommendation is Harry Potter audio books. And my kids of all ages love to listen to those. Yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker
It does get a little intense for the young ones sometimes, but the older ones, all it takes is saying, okay, we can turn it off if this is too scary. And then, oh, no, no, no, the older ones will help the younger ones cope. Remember, this is just a story. And the nice thing about audiobooks I was going to mention is that's a great way to take downtime from screens. So if you've got iPads or a TV going in the car and you just don't want your kids to do it for eight hours, you say, okay, we're going to watch a movie and we're going to turn it off and we're going to listen to this audio book. You can sleep if you want, you can listen, you can look out the window.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yes, and my last recommendation is for younger kids. My kids love I Spy books and when they're confined to a seatbelt or car seat and they can't get out and move around, they can take one of those books and look for a long time at one page and then turn the page and look for a long time at that page too.
00:32:18
Speaker
The one physical recommendation I'll give is magnet toys. So I'll put a link to this in the show notes, but sometimes you can find like little cases with little magnet dolls or little magnet robots and it's a really easy self-contained toy that kids will hopefully not drop all over the place because they're magnetic and they stick together.
00:32:38
Speaker
The other two things I want to recommend are two posts that I've written and I'll link to those as well. One is how to survive a family vacation. So some of our favorite tips there. And the other one is how to entertain a toddler on a plane. One time I was flying with Finn when he was a baby and well, I guess one. And I came up with all these random little games that I could play with a cup and a pen and a couple of things that I had in my purse. And they worked so well. He was so entertained. So I'll link to those in the show notes. Very cool.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yeah, so that's all we have for you guys. I hope this gives you the courage to go vacation with your kids and to survive and keep yourself calm even when things go horribly wrong, because they probably will, but you will have a good time anyway and make some great memories. Yeah, and we thought this episode would be really timely right now at the beginning of June when everybody's getting ready to go on summer vacations with their kids. Yeah, so good luck out there.
00:33:30
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this episode, we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a written review on iTunes. If you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at OutnumberThePodcast at gmail.com and find us on Instagram at OutnumberThePodcast. See you next week.