A Basic Guide to Prepare Your Children for Travel

Going on a trip with your children is far more challenging and worrisome than going about it on your own. While protecting them with a good family travel insurance policy can mitigate your worries to a certain level, there are also other things you can do to prepare them for what to expect during the trip. Depending on the age of your children, the following tips are just some of the experientially proven ways of ensuring they will not only be fully prepared, but also enjoy the journey.

Traveling with Babies or Toddlers

Many parents would rather stay at home than expose their vulnerable babies to the risks common in travel, but there are ways to keep the risks minimal to nil. For example, if you get a good family travel insurance policy in place, the insurer may help educate you about what to expect when you arrive at your destination. To prepare very young children for the idea that they may have to spend long hours travelling on a train, a plane or car, it helps to educate and even entertain them beforehand with picture books that depict characters who travel. In that way, you effectively manage their imagination and expectations and they are much less likely to panic or stress out. It also helps to bring what are called ‘manipulatives’: if you’re getting on board a plane, bring a toy plane that the child can hold and play with. While travelling, it also helps to speak to your toddler and describe what is happening and what’s about to happen.

Traveling with Pre-schoolers

When travelling with pre-schoolers, it’s important to understand what children this age really enjoy doing, in order to adjust aspects of your journey to suit their needs. For example, pre-schoolers love to act out, and this behaviour can be precarious if you’re going to a place you’ve never been to before. Even with a good family travel insurance policy in place for your own peace of mind, you will still have to walk the extra mile to help your pre-schooler understand what to expect from the experience.

As with toddlers, it helps a lot to talk to your pre-schooler about the trip in advance: you can act out or play act aspects of the upcoming trip in order for them to fully imagine it. If you’re flying, using picture or sticker books can greatly alleviate whatever fears they may have of airplanes—the more emotionally prepared they are about what they’re about to experience, the less likely they are going to panic or resist the experience. You can also boost your pre-schooler’s confidence and sense of independence by giving them a small bag and asking them to pack in it the things they need for the trip.

Traveling With School-age Children

If you travel frequently with children, it’s safe to assume that by the time they are of school age they are already au fait with the idea of travel (although that doesn’t mean you can ditch the family travel insurance). But if they’re travelling for the first time, preparing them is easy: school-age kids can read, and you should simply give them books they can read about the destination you are travelling to. The effect of this can be manifold and reading up about the destination can further stoke their interest and eagerness, especially with books that have lots of pictures. I can also them a deep sense of involvement if you ask for their help when packing the family suitcases.

Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Insuremore. We provide low cost travel insurance and offer a range of policies including family travel insurance, annual, multi-trip and single-trip insurance. For all your travel cover needs, Insuremore can help you in the quickest and most cost-efficient way.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.