Travel essentials

Hi anyone have any tips or tools or items that made traveling a long haul flight easier for you. I have two young kids. Will appreciate any advice.

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.

Add a comment

It depends on what your focus/priority is. Health? Bring a travel mat to lay your baby on to give them time to spread out during layovers. Bring lots of baby wipes and hand sanitizer to clean their hands and pack a little package of disinfecting wipes to wipe down the seats, trays, arm rests, and seat belts/buckles.

For a toddler, it's good to bring reusable stickers and little booklets with backdrops for the stickers. My kids loved those. Also lots of snacks. Little notebooks with twist crayons are great for entertainment. It can also be a good idea to pack headphones and have some episodes of a favorite TV show or some movies downloaded into your phone or a laptop/tablet to keep them entertained.

It is also a good idea to bring a light, thin blanket for each kiddo to help them sleep more comfortably on long flights. I definitely recommend you gate-check your stroller and receive it at each layover. It's like a floating island of home base you can take with you everywhere.

Remember to pack your kids' tear-free body wash/shampoo because hotel stuff isn't great for their skin and hair (or eyes). And limit beloved toys to one or two that you can easily attach and detach from bags or their clothes (like with a pacifier strap).

Label everything. I use identical washi tape and tape it onto every charge cord, backpack strap, diaper bag, device, etc to label and keep track of your items.

MAKE SURE to keep an extra outfit or two for each kid and a light, compact outfit for yourself and your partner at all times. Getting stuck for hours with baby poop or spit up in your lap is no fun. So keep a thin T-shirt, undies, and athletic shorts or leggings in your diaper bag for emergencies.

Lollipops, life saver mints, and binkis can help kids regulate the pain in their ears with the elevation ups and down, so see if you can keep some on hand for takeoffs and landings.

Keep in mind that a lot of airports have Mamava lactation pods, so if you want to find a quiet space to breastfeed or bottle feed your little one, you can download the app and see if there is one in your vicinity. They are lovely little slices of heaven that can save your sanity on the move.

in our community

would you call CPS on your neighbours who you can clear as day hear through the vents “stop hitting me daddy”?

for the record, I have called. I just want to know other people’s thoughts and opinions. I was hesitant to call, because they’ve made false statements about me abusing my kids (and I don’t). what they saw and claimed was I abuse my kids because I grabbed our 2.5y old’s arm from running across the STREET when the bus was coming & from going over where they kept open canisters of weed, a bong, cigarettes and alcohol. heaven forbid I keep my child SAFE… but no that ‘s abuse to them.

This week's Harvest

This is what I Harvested today from my back yard garden. Burpless Cucumber, tomatoes and sweet pepper.

🍅🥒🫑🇬🇧England, Uk

Anyone else angry 24/7?🤣

Gosh I am so angry and irritated all the time. Sometimes I have no reason to be but I feel like I can’t help it especially with my partner. He is so gentle, loving and patient but any little thing he does sets me off. I feel terrible! Anyone going through this?

Parenting

My son is 4 about to be 5. I’m so tired of this life . I miss waking up in silence . I miss going for myself without no distractions. I thought motherhood would be exciting but I dread it . I work a shift I don’t want to . I can’t travel I can’t do much . I miss myself before I had a kid and I feel so selfish like bad karma will happen because I’m tired of being a parent. Everything involves my kid . I just feel weak and vulnerable. I hate that I had a kid with someone I wouldn’t even touch again . I hate this life . I wake up miserable everyday. My son deserves a happy mom . I hate this life god why was I so stupid

Unruly 4 year old

I’m so upset. I feel like I have failed as a parent. Does anybody else have a child that they can’t control? I just received a call from my son’s camp saying he was running around screaming the F word then jumped on top of a kid and grabbed their private parts. I don’t know what to do. I talked to my mom about it and she seems to think it is my fault that I let him get away with things when he was younger. My husband and I often talk to him about his behavior but it doesn’t seem to be working. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Am I being too harsh?

I’m due in two weeks and my partner and I have been arguing a lot recently. We have a two year old son and he’s a great dad, cleans, does bath times, does his bit around the house, always does pick up. He will do whatever I ask him to do, but this is my problem, I feel like I’m carrying the mental load, always having to remind him of things we need to do/prepare for the baby and I’m just drained always being the one that needs to remember stuff. He’s saying that I’m nit picking and never happy and doesn’t understand why me having to remind him is a big deal. It’s got to a point where I don’t know how we can move forward as we’ve had this same argument for years. He thinks I’m exaggerating and I’m just tired of carrying all the little decisions and remembering things daily. I’m not sure what our future looks like but I’m also like is this just how men are?