Traveling With A Toddler During The Holidays (and how to make it easier)

Over the holidays the family and I traveled to Washington state to spend Christmas with the family. This was our first time flying with our little toddler (we have previously flown with him as a baby). We flew from Chicago to Seattle's Sea-Tac International Airport with no problems. My DS took a short nap, spent some time walking up and down the aisles, and playing with some new toys we brought along.

When we arrived in Seattle we faced a 5 hour layover until our next puddle jumper flight to the town of Wenatchee. How do you entertain a toddler in an international airport for 5 hours during the holiday travel season?

That's a good question. We tried to keep him occupied with toys. But we also walked him around a lot. Now that he's walking on his own, we took him out of his stroller to let him get some exercise. We had a little backpack for him that had a leash attached.

I'll be honest, it felt a little weird walking around Sea-Tac Airport with my son on a leash and me saying "Heal, heal!" I got some strange looks. Though I think most people thought it was cute. Still, walking a toddler around in a crowded airport is never easy.

I've said in a previous post that flexibility is the key for any parent, and this is especially true for air travel. Here a few tips:

1. Don't count on getting any work done. When he fell asleep for 45-minutes I was able to close my eyes and listen to some music, but that was it. Forget about doing any work, catching up on your reading or anything else.

2. Come prepared with a lot of toys. They should be fairly new toys that your child hasn't played with that much (or not at all). Don't bring regular toys that your child plays with all the time, or might be bored with. A new toy will keep him/her occupied much longer. And when traveling with a toddler, every minute counts.

3. Buy your child his/her own seat on the plane. This was invaluable to keeping our sanity. This might not be an option for everyone because you are paying the regular fare for a seat, which can get expensive. For us, the extra room was well worth it. Just keep in mind that if your toddler is 2-years or older, airlines require you to buy a seat.

There are a lot of things you can do to make traveling with a child easier. The above tips are the ones we found the most helpful.

How do you make traveling with a toddler easier?