On the flight to our most recent vacation destination, I sat beside
a mom with her 3-year-old son. Once
settled down in their seats, she took out a stickers activity to play with her
son. They talked about what the
characters are and how to make them.
After a while, she took out another activity and the process starts all
over again. Throughout the whole 3-hour
plane ride, I didn’t hear any screaming or crying, just talking and
giggling. All the other passengers were
amazed at how well-behaved this little boy was. It was actually not a surprise, considering how prepared this mom
was.
When my girls were young, I used to pack crayons and paper
in my bag. When they are older, I
stopped packing for them but asked them to pack for themselves, even for a
short trip, like eating at a restaurant.
Granted now that we have more electronics, they are usually preoccupied
by the video games while waiting. If we
don’t have enough electronics for each of them (e.g. they are being charged at
home), they either take turns, draw pictures or read a book. What I’m trying to say is a bored child is
usually a misbehaved child. It takes
planning and training for parents to enjoy going out with their children. Some parents might say that their child doesn’t
play with the materials that they pack or he/she isn’t interested in anything
else but electronics. That’s why I said
“preparation” and “training”.
For children younger than 3, it’s helpful to pack a little
bag with toys or objects that they don’t play at home. If they can only play with them when going
out, they are going to be engaged with exploring what’s in the bag. The toys in the bag should not include
electronics. Nowadays most children
have enough screen time at home that they don’t need more while going out. Without the electronics, they are learning
to entertain themselves with more meaningful and creative activities. For children between ages 3-6, their better
fine motor skills (so they can use pencils/crayons), more advanced concept of
symbolic representation (that is, using one thing to represent the other), as
well as vivid imagination make paper, pencils or Magna Doodle quite
useful. You can also ask them to pack
for themselves. Children this age love
to imitate grown-ups and they would be very enthusiastic to pack for
themselves. If they are into pretend
play, they can pack little action figures or dolls for hours of fun. For children who are able to read and write,
they can get into a habit of packing for themselves. We usually limit our girls’ screen time during the weekdays but
let them bring electronics on the weekend when we go out.
What are your ideas and strategies? How do you keep your child entertained on
the long trip or when waiting in a restaurant?
