Plane travel with an almost-3-yr-old

For the past 3 months, I have a lot of flying with my little guy (not unlike other months, really…but these were relatively long trips) – now just a week shy of 3 years old. Some parts of plane travel are getting easier as he gets older: he understands and respects (most of the time) the concept of the seatbelt sign; he knows to anticipate juice (a treat for him) and other goodies like the candy I freely dispense when he starts going nuts; his attention span has grown seemingly exponentially. He is, of course, still not fully cognizant of why it’s not Ok to throw things over the back of the seat in front of him, scream at the top of his lungs when he’s frustrated, or why he doesn’t instantly receive said juice when he gets to his seat.

Here are some new tips I’ve learned for traveling with this-age kid.

Balloons become crazy-static-electricity-fied on an airplane = magic! Before he started going completely nuts and throwing them at everyone in the vicinity (at least they don’t hurt), a few small balloons lasted quite some time as we explored what they would stick to and the best way to get them fully statically charged.

Static!

Boys love cars/trains/vehicles in general. I had no idea this would be such a hit, but on our cross-US flight Ryder was amused for almost 3 hours total with a box of small cars and a 4-panel “roadmap.” Extra happily for me, he also didn’t particularly care whether I joined him in playing with the cars (something I find I am not that good at – or, let’s be honest, I find somewhat boring), and proceeded to make up little stories with the various cars and keep fully engaged for long chunks of time. I was therefore free to read snatches of a book or the inflight magazine while periodically listening to him narrating for his cars (“Oh look, you got hurt. I’ll take you to the doctor.”).

There are lots and lots of websites that will give you ideas for “busy bags.” The concept is that you put together a little activity in a small bag which will keep your child busy in boring situations like waiting in line at the bank, or waiting for mom to finish the weekly dreadlock-banishment she has decided to tackle on herself. I took the time during a few naps prior to our trip to put some of these together…and they were essentially all a total disaster. Either too easy, too hard, too boring, or too difficult to do in a cramped space. So, maybe don’t waste your time unless color-coding clothespins and punching holes in cardboard and gathering shoelaces is your idea of a good time.

You must have snacks; as many varieties as you can anticipate him wanting to eat. Of course, your child will not want any of them, and will instead demand something that does not exist on the airplane. He will only be appeased when you break down and spend $8 on a few crappy crackers and two pieces of cheese after you make up a story about how his special car loves that particular type of dried up cheese and of which he will take one bite and then say that he is full.

These car track "maps" came with a bunch of cars with non-turning wheels, which he now hates and made me donate at the Goodwill (sorry, other kids), but the maps were a hit

His special metal water bottle will become pressurized and spray water all over him, you, your neighbor, and all of the seats when you open it. This will then become an activity he wishes to repeat on all subsequent plane flights, so you’d be wise to bring along some napkins. Also they’ll be helpful for the juice he will pour all over his lap when he decides his special car would like a bath.

My child is, sometimes I think unfortunately, not that into watching movies (yet?). Even on planes that had built-in movie screens and lots of choices of kids movies and shows, he will become quickly bored. This is inconvenient to me, because I love being able to watch a movie on a plane I would never watch in normal life. So, I’ll usually resort to handing him my phone – he is entranced by the camera/video and flashlight features. Thank goodness for a decent battery life and seemingly endless storage for the 634 close-up nose photos/2 second videos of my thigh that he will take, which keeps him busy for about 30 minutes at a time. Also I think the people behind us really enjoy being intermittently blinded by the flashlight.

We have a lot of these photos now

Don’t forget books!

Playdoh and tools with which to chop up and poke holes in said playdoh are also super useful at this age. Potential playdoh tools available on planes include plastic cutlery and stabby stir-sticks.

At home, Ryder likes to draw; but not on trips, apparently. I bring paper and pens and crayons every damn time and they are immediately swatted to the floor if I bring them out. He will, however, play with glue and/or paint on a plane. The cabin attendants and adjacent well-dressed flyers love this.

And now, the most important tip: a light scarf (or actually, maybe an eye mask would work!) to block out all of the exciting visual stimulation was incredibly helpful to get R to sleep on the plane. He’s outgrown being rocked or walked to sleep, so making it boring to keep his eyes open was the only way to get him to sleep (usually after an episode of kicking me/pulling my hair/screaming or something else horrible to indicate it was beyond time).

Enjoy your travels!

The other upside of letting the kid take pictures is that you will end up with many keepsake photos for your family album