How to Pack: Traveling with Kids
Traveling with children? Prevent meltdowns and tantrums over what to wear by learning how to pack a suitcase for a child with these easy tips from Domestic CEO.
If you’ve been following along with the Domestic CEO show, you know that the last few weeks I’ve been giving tips on how to pack a suitcase. From the packing list to actually getting things in the bag, how you pack a suitcase can make a big difference in how you enjoy your trip. If you find yourself struggling to find the clothes you want to wear each morning, or if you’re going nuts over a pair of pants that have gone AWOL, your day is already going to start with a little chaos. Having a nicely organized suitcase where you can easily find all your belongings when you need them is a major factor in creating wonderful vacation memories.
But what if you’re traveling with children? The last thing you need on a vacation is a meltdown from a 3-year-old who can’t find her favorite shirt to wear to Disneyland. So learning how to pack a child’s suitcase is an important step in travel bliss. Today I’ll be giving you a few tips on things you can do when packing a suitcase for a child that will help ensure you wake to happy mornings instead of temper tantrums.
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Packing Tip #1: Let the Child Help
Anytime you’re trying to minimize meltdowns (and let’s face it, that’s pretty much all the time, right?), giving the child some choices will give her a sense of control over her situation. If you want to minimize your chances of your child losing it on the first morning of vacation because she doesn’t want to wear anything in her suitcase, it’s best to have her help pick what goes into this suitcase before the trip.
Although I’m not a parent, I’ve been a nanny and ran childcare facilities for years before I became the Domestic CEO, so I have a piece of advice for parents. Kids have a very tough time making decisions when there are a lot of choices. Their minds simply can’t handle the overload. Heck, as adults we have a tough time when presented with too many options (think about how long it takes you to decide what you want to eat when a menu is 12 pages long verses a simple one pager). Help your child make decisions by narrowing the options down to no more than 3. Lay 3 outfit choices out on the bed, ask her which of these 3 choices she wants to take on your trip, then remove the one she chooses and replace it with another outfit so she can again choose from 3.
Now, you probably noticed that I said outfits, not shirts or pants. This is because, when packing for a child, you want to think in outfits, not pieces. Having your child pick out the top and bottoms, then even the underwear and socks to go with each outfit will help prevent any decision drama while on your vacation. Grab a few pairs of shoes that will go with every outfit. I suggest one pair of slip-ons, at least one pair of walking shoes, and then another that is specific to your location, like flip flops or snow boots. Make sure all the pairs you bring are ones that currently fit your child well so you don’t have to worry about blisters or achy feet during long days of walking.
Once you have an outfit for each day, pack another complete outfit or two depending on how much room you have in your bags as well as your child’s ability to stay dry and stain-free. Before you start overloading your bags with multiple outfits per day, remember that almost every hotel has washing machines or a Laundromat within a few miles in case you need to wash a few things while you are gone.
Packing Tip #2: Prepackage the Outfits
Now that you and your child have picked the outfits she is going to wear while on vacation, it’s time to package them up for even easier mornings. This is where packing a suitcase for a child differs from packing a suitcase for an adult. As adults, we may have lots of items we can mix and match, so we keep our shirts with shirts and pants with pants to easily find the right combination in the morning. When is the last time your child was able to wear any piece of clothing more than 1 time without getting it filthy or torn? Never? That’s what I thought. So, if you know that a certain shirt is going to be worn with a certain pair of shorts, pack them that way. I actually recommend putting them into gallon (or 2 gallon if your child is older) plastic baggies so your child can pick which outfit she wants to wear each day.
If you do an internet search for “How to pack a child’s suitcase,” you’ll likely find lots of mommy blogs that give this tip, but then take it a step farther and label each baggie with the day of the trip those clothes are going to be worn. I would advise against this step because…
…you never know if conditions are going to change. If you have a child who doesn’t like change, and Tuesday’s weather isn’t appropriate for Tuesday’s outfit, you are going to have a meltdown. Or, what if your child’s mood changes and she absolutely does NOT want to wear Monday’s outfit on Monday? With so many unknowns in the mix, allowing your child to choose from 3 of her packaged outfits each morning will allow her to feel like she has a little control during the crazy days of your vacation.
Packing Tip #3: Keep the Fun Stuff Separate
Traveling with kids means that you need to pack entertainment as well as clothes. Games, coloring books, small toys, and snacks are all important items to have if you want to keep the peace. When you’re packing a suitcase for a child, though, this is not the time to try and magically fit everything into one bag. Keep a separate bag for the fun stuff. Anything that will keep your child occupied and happy should be packed into a smaller bag that can be kept within arm’s reach at all times. If you pack any items into the suitcase that gets checked onto the plane or put into the trunk, inevitably your child will want the item in THAT bag rather than the bag that’s right next to them. Since a small child doesn’t understand what a “checked bag” means, she only knows that she packed her favorite movie and now Mom or Dad won’t let her have it. You can understand how a temper tantrum can easily arise from this situation. Likewise, once you get to your destination, if there are goodies in the clothing bag, you can expect it to be torn apart as your child digs for the toys and games.
Save yourself the hassle and headache by simply having a separate bag for entertainment items. Have your child pick out a few items that can keep her occupied on the flight, long car ride, and down time at the hotel. All these items should be able to be packed into a small bag that your child can carry or pull through the airport. They will learn responsibility, and maybe even the value of becoming a light packer, if they have to haul their own bag around.
Plus, your job is to make sure your family and their belongings are all corralled and make it to their destination. If your hands are full with everyone else’s stuff, that job becomes much harder to do. Make everyone in the family chip in on the effort and things will go much smoother.
So those are my tips for how to pack a suitcase for a child. I would love to hear your tips or horror stories too. Post them in the Comments section below and help us learn from your experiences as well.
Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.