Making flights fun for kids

One of life’s greatest pleasures is to travel with your children. As a parent, it is a blessing to be able to head through the departure gates with young ones in hand, instead of leaving their forlorn figures behind and counting the days when they can be back in your arms again.

Capricious and precious, children are inevitably treated like VIPs. Having young ones with you comes with priority boarding and fringe benefits like extra attention from flight attendants. And you don’t have to worry about entertaining your children on flights entirely on your own as the airlines would usually give out activity packs containing crayons and activity books.

If that fails to keep the children occupied, consider it a licence to Mum and Dad to act silly and entertain the kids with funny faces and whatnot.

But it’s really much easier to pack your own activity pack for entertainment onboard. Get your children involved in selecting books and puzzles they want to do and toys they want to play with during the flight. That way, they’ll get to do what they like, and learn about packing for their trips.

Then, there is always the ever-reliable electronics to keep children glued to flickering screens. Many aircraft now come with an on-demand video system that offers movies, cartoons and games. A long haul flight is the one time parents need not play the disciplinarian and limit gadget time.

It is also a great start to vacation time ... unlimited time on electronic gadgets. Just make sure you charge your devices to their fullest before boarding the flight.

The plus point in flying with children is they are great humdrum breakers, thanks to their refreshing outlook on life. Mundane details of everyday life are suddenly fascinating topics as you look for creative ways to explain why a certain cloud is in the shape of a teddy bear. If you’ve never engaged in a debate on how wearing 3D spectacles will not help in angel-spotting, then you’ve never really lived. For this reason, it is advisable to get window seats to enable you to prove your point.

Busy parents will also discover how a long-haul flight is great for making up for lost time. With nowhere else to go and minus the interruptions of life’s daily attention-diverters, the confines of an aeroplane cabin are where you’ll have a captive audience. So use this chance to drum into your child why he has to study hard, say his Ps and Qs, not dig his nose in public and brainwash them into believing that Mum and Dad do indeed know best. This is the time for parents to put their oratory powers to the test. It is also a novel way of putting junior “to bed”.

And herein lies another secret parenting joy: The peaceful, contented feel of watching over a sleeping child (and admire his little nails and rosebud lips) without feeling guilty that you’re wasting your time. You’re in a plane. Where can you go, after all?

To make flying fun for parent and child, it helps to build a bit of excitement beforehand. This will not be hard as children seem to have an eternal fascination with anything that flies. You can hype this up during bedtime story sessions about a week beforehand.

Tell them they are going to fly into the clouds, see a town from high up in the sky, feel the thrill of speed during takeoff and landing. Did you know that the speed of an aircraft at takeoff is the same as a Bugatti Veyron’s at full zoom? Impress them with your technical know-how of the aviation world with facts like an aircraft’s avionics is about 4km long.

This will also be a good time to throw in lessons on the basics of immigration procedures by showing them their passports and other travel documents. Impress on the little ones what it means to safeguard one’s valuables. No passport, no go. If junior wants to bring Mr Bear along, enforce the lesson by preparing a Toyland version of a passage document with A4 paper and a printing wizard.

And lastly, taking a trip together is also a good excuse for stressing why junior must always stay close to Mum and Dad. An airport may be a mesmerising place, but who knows where danger may lurk? This is where you can kill two birds with one stone and explain why it’s a big no-no to pretend luggage trollies are F1 cars.

But most of all, flying with children is all part of the adventure of discovering new places together. It’s up to us to not think of flights as boring and mundane, but to make the most of the time to bond with our kids.