Today, we’re gonna talk about travel with kids and how to pack so your backs aren’t dying and you have more fun.
Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/-yZG7ufZBuE
Years ago, when we took our first overseas trip, we had suitcases. Then by our second trip, we’d decided we didn’t want to do suitcases again. So we borrowed rucksacks, or travel backpacks, from some friends. And we loved them so much we bought our own for our next trip. Sure, there are a couple of downsides, like a sweaty back and shoulders and the constant body workout, more likely to roll an ankle. But there are so many things that become waaaay easier:
- Getting on and off transportation.
- Going up and down stairs
- Watching people with rolly suitcases on cobblestone is quite funny
- Walking across grass, dirt, puddles, or anything not paved
- You get stronger
- Your luggage doesn’t keep hitting your heals
- Tall people don’t have to wreck their backs bending over for the wee little rolly suitcase handle
- You don’t have to worry about always keeping a hand on your luggage to prevent theft or the suitcase falling and whacking people
- If your children bring little rolly suitcases, you can then roll or carry theirs when they get exhausted.
- Hurrying between flights, trains, or subways is so much quicker going up and down stairs/escalators and easier weaving between crowds.
So we tend to use backpacks when traveling and as we started procreating, people were telling us we wouldn’t be able to travel the same way. We sort of took it as a challenge and tried to figure out how to travel with kids. We recently took an international trip with our three kids, yes, we were out-numbered. They range in age from 3 to 8-years-old.
So we had to decide how to pack our kids stuff for the trip. We figured expecting our 3-year-old to have a backpack that she needed to always wear, wouldn’t be the best. So we got two kid’s size day packs for our two older daughters and had them use two carry-on size rolling bags. Our oldest decided to use her rolling school backpack. She said it rolled easier than her other larger suitcase.
So I had a backpack and daypack. Jonathan did also. Our oldest had a rolling backpack and daypack. Our middle daughter had a carry-on rolling suitcase and a daypack. Our youngest’s stuff was stored in the extra space of all our bags.
Packing for the girls was interesting because we don’t completely do it for them, we try to guide. No matter how I explained the weight of some of their choices, they were disregarding my advice. An example was a small glass jar of hair bands and I tried to tell her even though it didn’t seem to weigh a lot it would all combine to be heavier.
We loaded up and headed to the airport. The girls weren’t even in the airport and they were complaining of the weight of their bags. To our dismay our flight got cancelled. Thankfully it allowed our girls to physically understand what Lisa had been explaining about the weight of their choices and they eliminated items from their bags.
So the dress rehearsal was very helpful for us. We recommend going for a walk with everything on before heading to the airport so the kids experience what it will be like.
Another trick we’ve learned for packing is using zipping style gallon bags, like Zip-Loc brand, to pack your items in before putting them in your backpack. This helps suck out air and decrease the space used in the bag. It also helps protect the items from water or, say, tomato juice that gets spilled by someone sitting in front of you on the airplane and they don’t tell you.
That has happened to me before. It was gross but I just needed to clean my backpack. If anyone has a more environmentally friendly waterproof, air suction idea, we’d love to hear it.
>>>>> Watch International Travel w Kids – Safety version (Episode 68)
>>>>> Watch International Travel w Kids – Communication version (Episode 69)>>>>> Watch Travel w Kids – Packing version (Episode 70)
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Conversation of the Day: What trick do you have for packing to save space and weight?
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