Child Taming on Vacation
Worst Vacation Ever
In 2016, when Jo Jr. was 22 months and I was 5 months pregnant with Missy Jo, Mr. Jo and I took the kids to Amsterdam. We went for 3 days prior to meeting up with our family on a Norwegian cruise. At the time, we had no experience travelling internationally with a toddler. Pretty much everything that could go wrong from a child taming perspective, did go wrong.
First of all, 22 months is a difficult age to travel internationally for the first time. Furthermore, Jo Jr. is the type of child that would rather do anything other than sleep. He takes after his daddy and I blame Mr. Jo for that. So, getting him to sleep on the 9h 40min flight was nearly impossible. I walked up and down the halls with him in my Ergo 360 for 1.5 hours before he actually fell asleep. And, he was crying bloody murder most of that time.
Things only got worse after we arrived in Amsterdam. The time difference made child taming very challenging. Since Amsterdam is 7 hours ahead, Jo Jr. did not want to sleep until 3 or 4 am. I remember walking him up and down the streets of Amsterdam in the stroller in the middle of the night trying to get him to sleep. And even though he was exhausted, he still woke up at 8 or 9 am. Tired baby makes for a grump baby. Grumpy baby makes for the worst vacation ever.
Looking back, I think I also underestimated Jo Jr.’s ability to understand consequences. He continued to refuse to sleep after we got on the cruise, and I just about had it. One night, I got really firm with him and said if he doesn’t close his eyes and sleep, I would take him out in the deck in the baby carrier. It was chilly and dark out there, and I think he was a little scared of the deck. When I got firm with him, he squeezed his eyes shut and went to sleep, finally! I wish I had done it earlier.
The Few Things We Did Right
On our Amsterdam trip, we did do a few things right as far as child taming goes. First, we got bulk head seats on the flight and requested a bassinet for Jo Jr. He exceeded the weight limit by a couple of pounds, but nobody questioned us! Mr. Jo purchased YouTube Red for a month and downloaded a bunch of Thomas the Train videos (his favorite at the time) prior to the flight. We had a few hours of peace on the flight while he was fixated on the iPad. Normally, we don’t let him watch videos or TV, so this was a special treat for him.
We also packed a million different snacks, mostly his favorites or ones he had not tried before. Our son is very motivated by food and sweets, so this also helped us curb a few meltdowns. At the time, sweets were forbidden in our household but that went out the window quickly on this trip.
Amsterdam is pretty stroller-friendly, so we were able to go pretty much anywhere with our travel stroller, even on buses. Jo Jr. took 3 hour naps every day in the stroller, so we ate lunch in peace and got to see the sites.
After 3 days, we met up with my extended family on our Norwegian cruise. With many more hands to help and ringleaders for child taming, the vacation started to turn around.
Learning from Our Mistakes
I wish I could tell you that traveling with toddlers is easy if you just do 1, 2, and 3… But, it doesn’t really work like that. There is a lot of pre-planning involved and you have to set your expectations accordingly.
A vacation with toddlers is just not going to be as relaxing as a romantic getaway with your spouse. But, it can still be enjoyable if you have knowledge in the field of child taming. Being able to expose your children to new cultures, history, and natural earthly beauty is worth the extra work and planning.
First, you must have many different ways to entertain your toddler. iPad, toys, snacks, and their favorite lovey or pacifier are musts.
Second, sleep is so important, for you and your toddler. Start trying to adjust to the time difference a week or two before you go if you’re going to encounter major changes in time zones. Also, don’t skip nap time! You will likely need to bring the baby carrier and/or stroller so you can still see the sites during the day while baby sleeps.
Third, be flexible. We like to see and do everything when we go on vacation. However, when we have the kids with us, we sometimes have to make trade-offs for the common good.
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