Traveling With A Tot: Flying Solo

By VGP Blogger, Kate

I recently took a solo trip with my 18 month old daughter. She’s flown a number of times and has always done well. However, I haven’t flown alone with her since she was 7 months old and fairly immobile. I was up for the challenge! I didn’t expect any disasters, but I did expect the trip to include a lot of effort on my part to keep her entertained. Just another day in the life of a Mom…am I right?

As we got to the gate I found a great parking spot for the stroller and I pulled out my favorite toy to entertain the tot at the gate…my dollar store car. I find a nice open area at the gate and push the car and allow the tot to race after it. She’s entertained and exerting energy so it’s a win-win. We also looked out the window at the planes for a while which is highly entertaining not only for the tot but for anyone watching her astounding excitement.

We found our seat on the flight and were relieved to find that our neighbor on the flight was a pediatric occupational therapist who didn’t seem to mind the very controlled chaos sitting next to her. I started to pull out the special snacks for our trip and then reached into the toy bag for a new fun toy.  The Tot saw some gel window clings I procured at our trusty dollar store and immediately grabbed them. She LOVED looking at the different shapes and placing them on the tray table and seat back. The window clings only need a light touch so it was easy for the tot to apply and peel back off without disturbing the person seated in front of us. She was enthralled for 20 solid minutes.

During the beverage service I got the tot apple juice…a HUGE treat and I also asked for a plastic cup. I then pulled out my next dollar store toy….craft pom poms. We spent the remainder of the flight putting the pom poms in a pill container then in the plastic cup and then into plastic Easter eggs. We had fun practicing colors and opening and closing the container and Easter eggs.  I will say if you feel your children are regularly around those who use pill containers for medication, you should find another type of container to use. After much consideration, I determined that my daughter is never in an environment unsupervised where medication is stored in a similar container and/or within her reach.

My solo trip was a huge success! I had a lot of fun on the flight with our new dollar store finds and was excited that my daughter genuinely enjoyed herself without much convincing on my part. It was a very easy trip and I would definitely travel solo with her again!