S/o : long plane ride and jet lag advice?

[Anonymous]

I have several long plane rides coming in within the next few months. 7hr plane rides up to 16 hrs.

We don’t have a tablet or want to buy one, but I’m assuming at least the 16hr flight will have the seat back TV. What are some travel tips that have worked for you and your kids? I will be traveling alone with my 7 year old. One of the trips may be all three of us (mom, dad, 7 yo).

[Anonymous]

Do you have them carry their own backpack or carryon?

[Anonymous]

I would not count on long flights having consoles. I have been on plenty of planes that do not have consoles. I have not flown internationally in ages so those planes might be set up differently.

I would buy a cheap tablet and plan on using that on the plane.

[Anonymous]

Buy a tablet and pay for you tube premium to download whatever content you want and PBS kids stuff and limit to that. Bring coloring books, sticker books. Own small backpack for the kid with snacks etc.

[Anonymous]

Frequent long haul traveler with kids here (we live overseas). Yes, buy a cheap tablet. Previous generation iPads aren't that expensive, but if you really don't want an iPad you can get a Kindle Fire. Download movies and shows from Netflix, Disney +, whatever you subscribe to. And make sure you buy kid sized noise canceling headphones to go with it.

A child sized eye mask can come in handy for sleeping. Bring plenty of filling and non-sugary snacks in case they don't like the food. Be sure to prebook a child's meal, that isn't always automatic. Bring chewing gum for ears (or a few lollypops if your child doesn't do gum).

I would also tuck in a few surprises, depending on what your child is into. Sticker/activity books, travel friendly games. You can type "airplane activities for 7 year olds" into amazon and get all sorts of ideas. I like to gift wrap the surprises, they make them even more fun.

Be sure to prepare you child mentally for the trip as well. Warn them they they will sleep on the plane over night, talk about how long it will be so you can manage expectations.

Good luck, it will be fine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frequent long haul traveler with kids here (we live overseas). Yes, buy a cheap tablet. Previous generation iPads aren't that expensive, but if you really don't want an iPad you can get a Kindle Fire. Download movies and shows from Netflix, Disney +, whatever you subscribe to. And make sure you buy kid sized noise canceling headphones to go with it.

A child sized eye mask can come in handy for sleeping. Bring plenty of filling and non-sugary snacks in case they don't like the food. Be sure to prebook a child's meal, that isn't always automatic. Bring chewing gum for ears (or a few lollypops if your child doesn't do gum).

I would also tuck in a few surprises, depending on what your child is into. Sticker/activity books, travel friendly games. You can type "airplane activities for 7 year olds" into amazon and get all sorts of ideas. I like to gift wrap the surprises, they make them even more fun.

Be sure to prepare you child mentally for the trip as well. Warn them they they will sleep on the plane over night, talk about how long it will be so you can manage expectations.

Good luck, it will be fine!

I see you asked about jet-lag too. If you can arrive at night and go straight to bed, it might go shockingly smoothly for your child. But when you have the inevitable 2 am makeups, keep the lights off, keep everything dark and try your best to stay in "sleepy mode" until at least 5 am (or whatever time you can tolerate being morning for the day). Try not to snack too much in the middle of the night or they won't adjust and will keep waking up hungry (I usually offer a glass of milk and something very light if they are starving). Get out in daylight as much as you can the first few days, and be out at sunset as well to help adjust your clock.

[Anonymous]

Honestly after 4, long flights with kids are not a big deal. I have flown with my kids to Europe and South America since they were babies and it’s hard until 4. My kids even fly alone to Europe once they turn 5. They watch movies and eat. It’s fun for them.

As far as jet lag goes, I have never had more than 6 hours with my kids. It’s always much harder coming back to the US from Europe and it takes my kids 3-4 days to get back to normal (and it takes me 6).

Because my kids usually fly out in the afternoon and arrive in Europe early in the morning (European time), they basically don’t sleep on the plane (or sleep at most 2 hours).

I try to have them take a nap at lunch time and wake them up after 2 hours. I then put them to bed around 8pm and they are usually ok within a day or two.

[Anonymous]

We fly to Asia 1x/year with my DD, who is now 8. She is a champ and usually does great with managing jet lag. I do not. So when all else fails, we try to be understanding and kind because travel is hard even for adults.

The most important thing is to have a book and a tablet, and to plan our screen time in advance. My DH is great about scheduling our inflight sleep/wake time based on how far west we are going in Asia and when our layovers and final landing are.

Then we set expectations about how long she’ll need to be awake on each flight. A week or two before the flight, she will download (with our help) an amount of shows and maybe 1-2 movies that are roughly double the awake time for going there and back. She’ll also choose a new, fat chapter book for the flight.

Shows are really important for keeping her awake when we need to push her waking hours. We don’t force sleep but we do enforce rest time, even on the plane, and will make her curl up and change into different socks and even a different top if it’s a long flight. It helps her body know it’s a different part of the day.

Finally, it’s so basic but you must do it: get out into daylight as soon as you arrive. Don’t unpack, don’t turn on a TV. Get walking or go for a swim or go run an errand. And if you arrive in the dark, don’t pull the shades- shower and go to bed as usual but try to let the sun wake you (unless you are going somewhere at a high latitude in the winter).

Finally, don’t stick to a usual bedtime if you can cheat on how many time zone changes you’re making. When we go from the west coast to London in the summer, we sleep in until 8-9 am local time and enjoy the late summer light and stay out until 10 pm. It saves us 2-3 days of jet lag recovery.

[Anonymous]

Tell us where you are flying to and from and we can give you better guidance on what to expect. I lived abroad when my kids were young and did long hauls from Asia and shorter flights from Europe twice a year (pre iPad). Also to and from Australia. Most 7 year olds will be perfectly fine. It’s really the baby/toddler phase that is tough. I stopped dreading the long trips once the last kid turned 4 or 5.

There are some tricks for getting over jet lag quickly, but it depends on if you are traveling east or west, how many hours difference, and what time your flights are. A couple of months ago, we visited Asia for a one week visit. We arrived home on a Sunday night at 8 pm, and the kids (12 and 9) went to school the next day. We woke up at 2 am for a while, but we all got adjusted within a few days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frequent long haul traveler with kids here (we live overseas). Yes, buy a cheap tablet. Previous generation iPads aren't that expensive, but if you really don't want an iPad you can get a Kindle Fire. Download movies and shows from Netflix, Disney +, whatever you subscribe to. And make sure you buy kid sized noise canceling headphones to go with it.

A child sized eye mask can come in handy for sleeping. Bring plenty of filling and non-sugary snacks in case they don't like the food. Be sure to prebook a child's meal, that isn't always automatic. Bring chewing gum for ears (or a few lollypops if your child doesn't do gum).

I would also tuck in a few surprises, depending on what your child is into. Sticker/activity books, travel friendly games. You can type "airplane activities for 7 year olds" into amazon and get all sorts of ideas. I like to gift wrap the surprises, they make them even more fun.

Be sure to prepare you child mentally for the trip as well. Warn them they they will sleep on the plane over night, talk about how long it will be so you can manage expectations.

Good luck, it will be fine!

I see you asked about jet-lag too. If you can arrive at night and go straight to bed, it might go shockingly smoothly for your child. But when you have the inevitable 2 am makeups, keep the lights off, keep everything dark and try your best to stay in "sleepy mode" until at least 5 am (or whatever time you can tolerate being morning for the day). Try not to snack too much in the middle of the night or they won't adjust and will keep waking up hungry (I usually offer a glass of milk and something very light if they are starving). Get out in daylight as much as you can the first few days, and be out at sunset as well to help adjust your clock.

This works like magic for our kids too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell us where you are flying to and from and we can give you better guidance on what to expect. I lived abroad when my kids were young and did long hauls from Asia and shorter flights from Europe twice a year (pre iPad). Also to and from Australia. Most 7 year olds will be perfectly fine. It’s really the baby/toddler phase that is tough. I stopped dreading the long trips once the last kid turned 4 or 5.

There are some tricks for getting over jet lag quickly, but it depends on if you are traveling east or west, how many hours difference, and what time your flights are. A couple of months ago, we visited Asia for a one week visit. We arrived home on a Sunday night at 8 pm, and the kids (12 and 9) went to school the next day. We woke up at 2 am for a while, but we all got adjusted within a few days.

We will be flying from Michigan to Japan and also Michigan to Western Europe (maybe London or Paris). And flying back to Midwest both times of course!

I think we booked some overnight flights that arrive in the AM and some that arrive at our destination country in the afternoon. I’m not sure which is preferable.

I’m still not sold on buying a tablet because we have held on so long without! Do international flights really not have the airline screens?

[Anonymous]

These are separate trips, I forgot to say. Europe and Asia are not in the same trip.

[Anonymous]

Even if there seat video screens they may be broken, or headset jack doesn’t work, or some other malfunction. Just get a tablet and headphones OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell us where you are flying to and from and we can give you better guidance on what to expect. I lived abroad when my kids were young and did long hauls from Asia and shorter flights from Europe twice a year (pre iPad). Also to and from Australia. Most 7 year olds will be perfectly fine. It’s really the baby/toddler phase that is tough. I stopped dreading the long trips once the last kid turned 4 or 5.

There are some tricks for getting over jet lag quickly, but it depends on if you are traveling east or west, how many hours difference, and what time your flights are. A couple of months ago, we visited Asia for a one week visit. We arrived home on a Sunday night at 8 pm, and the kids (12 and 9) went to school the next day. We woke up at 2 am for a while, but we all got adjusted within a few days.

We will be flying from Michigan to Japan and also Michigan to Western Europe (maybe London or Paris). And flying back to Midwest both times of course!

I think we booked some overnight flights that arrive in the AM and some that arrive at our destination country in the afternoon. I’m not sure which is preferable.

I’m still not sold on buying a tablet because we have held on so long without! Do international flights really not have the airline screens?

I’m the yearly trip to Asia poster who said you need a tablet. You don’t know what you’ll encounter on the plane, the controls might be confusing, or they might not be able to reach the seatback touch screen.

Our tablet comes out for plane trips and my DD doesn’t ask for it otherwise- it’s not like possessing it is a fast track to a screen-filled lifestyle. We only charge it for flights and otherwise it’s in a cupboard with our noise canceling headphones and zippy cases for travel- she sees it as a travel accessory. I also have downloaded two simple apps on it that aren’t movies- a drawing app that’s more oriented toward adults and a really basic game leftover from my iPod touch days. When we go to Asia, DD will usually watch all of the local language programming that’s in-flight (turns out she loves inscrutable Japanese game shows and travel shows) but it’s nice to have a backup option.

[Anonymous]

Op “I don’t want to buy a tablet. Do you have other advice?”

All responses “Buy a tablet.”