Travelling with families

The worse thing about travelling in a family is that everyone wants to do something different

There is never a total accord in what everyone wants to do

The trick is to make everyone think they are doing what they want without fuss and bother and for it to be as harmonious as possible.

OK this is hard enough in normal every day home life and travelling is far more stressful than that.

keep it simple . How many times do we hear that but with children this is so true.

First of all they can only take a little at the one time . Its exhausting for you to spend a day sightseeing and what do you remember at the end , a jumble of information that you can put into context because of something you can reference to . Maybe a film , maybe a history lesson , maybe something your Mum and Dad told you , they have nothing , its new .

So pace yourselves and if this means not seeing everything but getting the quality of what you do see then this is the way . If you are not prepared to do this then leave them behind .

If you are on a visiting friends and relative then there is always someone who will mind them while you go to see the exhibition or museum or church .

If you are travelling to see a country and you have no family connections , then see if there is another family that is happy to travel with you . Then you can take turns about for the serious sightseeing , and more than 2 parents for the shared sightseeing . Often if there is a third person about the children behave better and may not fight or squabble as much . It also means that you get to go and eat out by yourself and share the babysitting in the evening.

This fits in with mixed age families as there may be someone who also has a toddler if you have older children who are more keen to see new things .

A portable DVD is a must for travelling by yourselves

We are all guilty of putting television on to keep children amused , but wait -- its in French , Italian and its not SBS there are no captions quel dommage!!!!!

However with the trusty DVD out comes the favourite DVDs and the day is saved.

This is good also with books and in this day and age IPODS with podcasts on them

Anything that can keep attention and a child interested on a long flight , train journey , car journey and or wait at the airport . There is only so much "are we nearly there "that a parent can bear.