Thursday, September 29, 2011

Flying With Toddler Twins? Alone?

It's possible! And it's not completely awful and stressful either. Well, I didn't find it to be anyways! Cohen and Kason are 16-months old and they had been on six flights before I took them alone, and they had been awesome on every one of those, so I wasn't hugely worried. To be honest, the part that was worrying me the most was getting through Customs.


My top tips for flying alone with toddler twins:

  • Try to take only one carry-on bag onboard
    • The less you have to carry, the better! Especially if you can't be guaranteed a stroller through the airport.
  • Take lots of snacks
    • They are awesome to distract kids! I took lots of fruit and some sandwiches. Just don't forget to dispose of any uneaten fruit before leaving the plane - you don't want to be getting any fines!
  • Call the airline before you fly and request ground assistance
    • Seriously, I would consider this essential. The ground assistance we got was absolutely fantastic, and if we hadn't of had it, our trips would have been HARD.
  • Purchase at least one CARES harness
    • This was awesome. It meant that I didn't have to deal with the bulkiness of a big carseat onboard the plane, and the boys squirmed much less when strapped in with this than just sitting on my lap with the infant lap belt. I will definitely be getting a second one before we fly again.
  • Use backpack harnesses in the airports
    • I ended up tucking the tail of one boy's backpack up and holding the other one. That meant that I only had to watch the boy whom I wasn't holding onto as I knew the one I was holding onto couldn't get far enough to get into mischief!
  • New toys and books and 'new' toys and books
    • We bought Cohen and Kason a few new toys and books which I wrapped up and gave them on the flights. These kept them entertained for a decent amount of time! I also hid away some of their favourite toys and books in the months leading up the trip so they were 'new' again to them! I highly recommend medium-sized cars – both the boys enjoyed rolling them on the tray tables.
  • If you can choose your seats, the second-to-back ones are the best.
    • These are the seats we had on our flight back, and meant that we could get the CARES harness over the back of the seat (I don't know if you can on the very back seats), and, most importantly, the boys could walk to the bathroom when I needed to change their nappies. That way I didn't need to bother another passenger or a crew member to watch the other boy while I changed his brother.
  • Don't stress about it!
    • Just make sure you are as organised as you can be, accept all offers of help. The less stressed you are, the less stressed the kids will be!
Flying alone with the boys is definitely something that I would tackle again if I needed to. It was nowhere near as stressful as a lot of people make it out to be!
xxx

1 comment:

  1. Color me impressed! I still have trouble taking all of mine to the grocery store, let alone on an international flight!!!

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