“It’s been an hour,” I mouth at my husband from across the room. He shrugs and turns his attention toward the bag carousel, which should start at any moment…but it doesn’t. We’ve eaten all of our snacks. Will our car still be waiting for us? And there goes our lunch reservation…I’m just counting down the minutes until the meltdown happens.
Travel removes the control you pretend you have on the world. Will your flight be delayed? Your rental car mysteriously unavailable? Your hotel room *still* not ready after waiting for hours past check-in time? The restaurant not open at 5:01 PM? I find with a toddler, these minor inconveniences that didn’t bother me in the least now feel like huge challenges. That’s partially my personality—Type A eldest daughter here—but also because we keep a schedule for a reason. (It’s me, I’m the hangry one.)
At home, or even on shorter outings, you can work around this more easily. I have emergency rations (aka animal crackers) in my car for quick getaways or can distract with the many, many toys/stuffies lying around our house if needed.
But when you’re out in a public place you don’t always have that option. You may be out of snacks. Favorite toys might be packed away or in lost luggage. The iPad may be out of juice. What will you do?
Channel your best preschool-teacher/camp-counselor energy, that’s what.
You don’t need any gear to have fun when you’re a toddler.
I know that everyone has a different comfort level about looking silly in public, but I implore you, if you have toddlers, you will be judged so much more for them screaming/crying than laughing or playing. (I hate how in public everyone suddenly becomes a parenting expert, but hey, that’s just what we’re dealing with.)
Making the best of waiting for the library to open after a mistimed haircut/library outing. (Thank goodness for great public parks!)
I am the type of parent that will sing a sea shanty in public if that means my toddler will calm down. (It does work!) I totally get if that’s not you, and if you’d rather park your kid with an iPad, I get it. I really do. My toddler refuses to sit still for more than ten minutes…we are wiggly! That’s just what I’m working with.
Here are some of my favorite games to play while traveling, usually in an airport or hotel lobby:
- Follow the lines with your feet: Pick a pattern on the floor and follow it, arms out like a balance beam. You can add a floor-is-lava dimension to this if you wish, but usually the challenge of following the lines is enough.
- Line jumps: Similar, but jump over the lines and/or jump from tile square to square pretending to be a frog/kangaroo/bunny, toddler’s choice.
- How fast can you run to X? My tried-and-true is asking my toddler to run as fast as they can to go tag a wall and come back and give me a high five. Obviously don’t do this in a super high-traffic area where they’re in the way. This is a good one for hotel hallways.
- Hide-and-seek: Great for a large park with trees or in an empty hotel ballroom. I love the spots my toddler thinks are “hidden.” Again, obviously don’t do this in a spot where you’ll lose ‘em!
- Tag: A classic for a reason.
- How many X are there? Pick something that is common around where you are, like an exit sign or a clock, and see how many you can find. A variation of this is with colors or letters.
- Chop Chop: Sit in a circle and pretend you’re making a big pie or soup. Each person chooses something to go in the pot. Then everyone karate chops and chants, “Chop chop chippetty chop. Cut off the bottom, cut off the top. What there is left, we put in the pot. Chop chop chippetty chop!” S/O to a food-themed storytime where we learned this one!
- Patty Cake: Most of my games are food related? I like to make my patty cakes be increasingly ridiculous or complex, or pretend that they’re stacked up too high and falling over, or whatever kind of bit will make the most laughs. (I will do ANYTHING for a baby giggle.)
- I Spy: An oldie-but-goodie. Better for older toddlers who know their colors.
- I’m a…: I vary this based on where we are but generally, it’s easy to start a game of pretend just by jumping in. I’ll often pick an animal and go for it that way, but you can easily do mermaid/pirate/princess/what have you. We usually end up picking vehicles, surprise surprise.
Whatever game you play, make it a game you’ve already played before. Try some or all of these at home before you whip them out on a travel day when your toddler is surviving on crackers and juice. The faster you can turn a moment from “oh, our flight is delayed two hours” to “woo hoo! The airport is so fun!” is important. Toddlers are very, very attuned to the energy in a room, and we all know what airports feel like 🫠
When you travel, everything is exciting to your toddler.
We think of physical in-between Point A and Point B of travel as the mundane part. Toddlers have not lost the wonder of the hustle and bustle of a new place, no matter where you are. Take your toddler over and watch the chefs if there’s an open floorplan.
Ditto with airplanes taking off, traffic from a hotel window, the signs changing at a train station. My toddler is big into, “What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?” I try to remember this is often the first time they’re seeing something and explain how it works and what each person is doing, like I would with a Richard Scarry book.
Checking out the pancake-makin’ at Polly’s Pancake Parlor in NH, which are the best pancakes I’ve ever had anywhere.
This is especially true of babies. New lights, new sounds, etc are amazing. The first restaurant we ever went to, we were near the bar. The cocktail shaker at regular intervals provided endless entertainment and many baby giggles. Lean into the fact that you’re traveling and you may find more mundane magic than you’d expect.
A few items that facilitate open-ended play.
I do always carry certain things with me so that we can play wherever. You never know when they’ll come in handy! That includes:
- A no-mess coloring option.
- We’ve been doing more with play-doh lately.
- A set of animal figurines who have so many adventures.
- A (very small) ball for catch, rolling, juggling (or when my toddler was a baby, eating.)
- As my toddler is getting older, I’ve been tucking a mini-Duplo set into our bag to build. We just got Magna Tiles for Christmas, so I’m thinking those will be good, too.
- A scarf for peek-a-boo, catch-and-throw, superhero cape, or an impromptu pretend tea party picnic blanket.
- Measuring tape. We will measure everything in a room.
- We also do a lot with a little compass and/or a map. If there’s a kiosk with a map nearby, we always grab one. My toddler loves to play explorer.
I don’t always pack all of these things, but usually make sure at least one of them is handy (like, in my pocket) for these kinds of random waiting moments.
Thanks for being here.
A bleary early morning in Frankfurt, pre-kids and pre-international cell plans, where all I could do was watch the planes come in and out and hope our flight arrived.
It is so hard, sometimes, to remember the magic of childhood. This is especially true when we’re in frazzled/stressful situations. I hate flying (always have) and that’s one reason we’ve been so skittish on long flights with my toddler. I run out of patience so much more quickly when I’m hungry, tired, and stressed about making the connection. Add motherhood to that and I’m the one that has the meltdowns.
So when our bags didn’t come on that carousel for 1.5 hours after we had already landed, done a potty run, changed all of our clothes, and rushed to the baggage claim (and away from all of the food), oh, I was so mad. But my toddler grabbed my hand and said, “Look mama! An EXCAVALATOR!” We went up and down and up and down for literally an hour on the escalator. I somehow gathered a gaggle of children around us racing from wall to wall. It was actually…fun?
Our bags did come, eventually. Two hours and a big caesar salad-and-fries in glorious 80-degree weather later, I had that happy travel feeling again.
Here’s to making the best of it,
Kayla
If you liked this post, please consider supporting my work. I’m just a mom in the thick of the toddler years trying to create core memories for our whole family while minimizing meltdowns—I sincerely hope this helps you do the same.
This post was originally published on Travel with Toddlers. Subscribe for more real-talk travel advice, toddler-friendly itineraries, and tried-and-true gear recommendations.
