Peaceful Outing with Your Child

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?