Taking your kids on vacation should be the perfect chance to create some great family memories but things don’t always turn out as expected unless you can manage to keep them happy and up for the adventure.
Experiencing the Perfect Family Holiday
Here are some tips to help ensure that your next family trip goes to plan, including a way to make your kids feel right at home, why it pays to take your time, the case for doing some usual things, plus a reminder to steer clear of too much sugar.
Yes, there is indeed more than one way to be an awesome parent, keep reading!
Getting a good night’s sleep
Being away on vacation is exciting for kids but they need their full allocation of sleep if they are going to be able to function properly and not descend into a bit of a meltdown when their energy levels fall through over-tiredness.
If you are staying at a hotel, there won’t be any problems with comfort or lack of facilities, but however nice the hotel where you are staying it’s not home as far as the kids are concerned.
The way to resolve that issue is to make their new sleeping environment as familiar to them as possible. You can do this by packing their favorite blanket, stuffed toys, and anything else that can travel easily and will calm your child.
Helping them get a good night’s sleep will have them ready to go and in the right mood for the day ahead.
The unhurried approach works best
If there’s one thing in particular that can trigger a tantrum or make your child over-emotional it is when you try to hurry them because of time constraints and the stress levels rise.
Rushing to the airport gate with minutes to spare is a typical scenario that is going to trigger some unwanted behavior from your kids and is not going to be that good for your blood pressure either.
It’s much better to allow yourself plenty of time for unforeseen delays and keep the lid on any meltdown’s that could have been avoided.
Keep a regular routine
Being on vacation is all about breaking your usual routine and doing something different with your day but kids don’t cope as well as adults with changes to their internal timer.
With younger children, it often pays to try and keep them on a familiar routine as much as possible. Eat breakfast and lunch at the usual time if you can and if they have a nap in the afternoon for a couple of hours, try and schedule this into your vacation plans for the day.
Limit the treats
You want to have some fun and enjoy some treats while you are on holiday but be mindful about inducing a sugar rush with too many sweet things that they can’t process quickly enough.
Some kids are worse than others in dealing with sugary snacks, so if you have one that tends to bounce off the walls with too much sugar, don’t do that to them or yourself, just because you are on holiday.
Give them some protein-rich snacks if their energy levels are failing and limit the sugary treats if they could trigger some uncontrolled and bad behavior.
You know how to keep your kids happy and comfortable at home, so use some of the same tricks while you are away and you should have a great and stress-free vacation.
