Travelling with kids: Parenting expert’s top tips for stress-free family travel

Taking a holiday with your kids is one of life’s greatest joys.

Let’s be real: it’s never going to be relaxing and peaceful. But that doesn’t mean it has to be stressful.

Parenting expert Genevieve Muir told Today Extra that one of the best ways to have a stress-free holiday with kids is to let go of the routine a bit.

Watch the video above. 

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Don’t focus too much on your kids’ schedules and routines while away on holiday. 

“If we can let the screen time rules and the food rules slip a little bit, we know that we can always get that routine sorted once we get home.”

Another way to ensure your holiday is as low-stress as possible is to lay the groundwork before you go.

Before you even consider your holiday destination, Genevieve says you need to think about what “age and stage” your kids are in.

For example, renting a house for the whole extended family might not be ideal if you’ve got a newborn who is awake and crying every two hours.

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However, when your kids are a little older, holidaying in a group – with family or friends – can be a great way to reduce stress.

”My number one tip,” Genevieve says, ” get the grandparents involved, bring them along so there’s an extra set of hands to mind the kids.”

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The travel to and from the holiday destination could be the part of a trip that parents dread the most. Muir says that with the right planning, though, you can set yourself up for success.

“You need to set expectations,” she says, “and not just for the kids.” 

“It does help to tell kids what to expect. Their brains will cope better when we tell them: ‘Look, it is going to be a long car ride, you will get sick of sitting there.'”

Genevieve says that adults need to also expect that with a long plane or car ride comes tears and fights from the kids. “If we come into that knowing what’s going to happen, I think we go a little bit better in the moment as well.”

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Genevieve says that it’s good to be ready for any problems or unexpected interruptions that may arise. She says that over the weekend she was away with her four kids when the Crowdstrike outage happened, leaving them without their devices. 

“They just played a massive game of Monopoly,” she said.

”We can’t predict everything that’s going to happen. But as parents, if we can know that we’re going to have to be flexible and roll emotionally, the kids are going to be ok.”

“It’s about us as parents to know that we can make a plan B, be flexible, and guide the kids in the right direction.”

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