Have kids, will travel: 8 tips for family trips

Kids should learn how to travel, and parents should learn how to support kids to make travel fun and adventurous. I polled a number of friends and family who have traveled with their kids, asking them for their favorite travel tips. Here are eight favorites relating specifically to airplane and road trips, but I am sure these same lessons apply to most every form of transportation.

2. Travel industry professionals are your friend

Andy Nelson / The Christian Science Monitor, File
Unfazed by the beginning of an overnight train trip, 10-week-old Kiran waits as he waits for his mother and brother to finish the ticketing process at the Amtrak counter at Union Station in Washington, DC.

"Be friendly to flight attendants, on my flight from NYC to LA there was no changing table in any of the bathrooms!!! Luckily one of the flight attendants let me use his seat to change Oliver and even offered to hold him while I went to the restroom or if I just needed a break." – Gina, mother of Oliver, 8 months

Flight attendants, shuttle bus operators, hotel concierges, airline desk attendants, the list goes on…love kids. It’s the parents that annoy them. Think about it. When you see a kid who is misbehaving on a flight and you notice that the parent could care less, who makes you more frustrated? Conversely, if you see a parent struggling to keep it together, aren’t you more likely to help?

Treat travel professionals nicely, thank them often, offer them the pristine magazine of which you read only three pages since your kid refused to nap, stay out of their way when they need to get work done, and do what you can to help them like you. 

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