If travelling overseas with your kids is a nightmare, you’re doing it wrong

When it comes to travelling with your kids, there’s an enduring, age-old idea that you shouldn’t head overseas when they’re young because it’s too hard, and they won’t remember it anyway. But can we pause for a moment and rethink this?

All too frequently, when I share my family’s international travel plans, I’m met with negative commentary about long-haul flights, time zone changes, disrupted sleep patterns, and cuisines our kids aren’t accustomed to. All of these things are valid to a point, but what if, instead of fixating on the anticipated challenges, we embrace the possibility of a great family adventure?

Don’t get me wrong; travelling with kids requires a lot of effort and patience, but isn’t that true of parenting in general? And if the argument hinges on their inability to remember things, should we stop reading them bedtime stories too?

After becoming parents, my husband and I decided having kids didn’t mean we had to, or should, abandon our travel dreams. We scoffed at the idea of limiting adventures to our backyard when our son, now 11, entered the world and three years later when our daughter arrived.

Our travels began when our son was seven months old. We braced ourselves for a potential midair symphony of baby wails, nappy blowouts at 35,000 feet, and daggers from fellow passengers.

Fortunately, that scenario never unfolded; our little one was a great flyer. But even if he hadn’t been, it wouldn’t have deterred us from taking international journeys. Even if you are someone whose children don’t love air travel, after enduring 22 hours of chaos, you still touch down in a new land that’s ready to be explored.

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To help things run smoothly, we’ve always packed an ever-evolving arsenal of tools. We’ve invested in hiking packs that doubled as baby carriers and factored in “relax” days to allow for sandcastle constructions, joyful colouring in sessions or recovery naps. We’ve packed emergency games, ready to deploy and distract, iPads and always, always plenty of snacks.

With our children now growing older, we even parted ways for a day on a recent trip, with my son and I immersing ourselves in history at the Cold War Museum in Berlin, while my husband accompanied Miss Seven to an art gallery. This experience added a fresh dimension to our family travels. I have a deep-rooted interest in the World Wars, and have passed this passion on to my son. In Berlin, us two history enthusiasts found our adventure playground, and we evolved beyond the conventional mother-son dynamic into a partnership driven by a shared curiosity for knowledge and experiences.