Planning a Stress-Free Family Holiday

Holidays should be a fun and relaxing time, but travelling with children can turn into a stressful experience that is not enjoyable for anyone! Below are some tips to help you have a relaxing and stress-free family holiday

Get them to write a list of things they think they will need – clothes, activities, games and toys (young children can draw, photograph or cut pictures out of old catalogues if they can’t write their list).

You can check it, add to it and help the  children to pack their suitcase. Giving them this responsibility is a great way to engage children and help them develop organisation, planning and personal management skills.

Get outdoors and see what you can find – great for young explorers!

Taking the sweets on-board the plane will allow the children to suck the sweets and reduce the pressure in their ears.

Also, any compact toys without little pieces will allow your child to be occupied and have something to play with on the plane – cards games like Top Trumps are great!

This is a great opportunity to delve into the educational element of your trip by encouraging your child to learn some of the native language of the country you will be travelling to or even learning about what to expect and fully experiencing the culture on arrival.

You never know, you may like it! Lead by example – if you try a local delicacy, then your children are more likely to copy you. Bon Appetit!

Essentials include pens, pencils, rubbers, stickers and activity sheets. Your children can help decide what goes in this as part of the packing (see number 1 above).

This can be done by collecting different items and encouraging your child to write about their feelings, what food they liked/disliked, what sounds/sights they liked/disliked, etc. It will be a great memento to look back on one day.

Naturally, travelling abroad or even in your home country will allow you to take in the local sights and embrace the culture.

The normal routine goes out of the window when you’re on holiday, so children need to know what is expected of them, be sure to explain these to your children before you go and then repeat these when you arrive.

They still need to be well-behaved and rules will keep them safe in an unknown environment.

Put it where everyone can see it so that children can get excited about the holiday but won’t keep pestering you and asking how long until we go!