Mama Manifesto: Staying Sane While Traveling on a Plane

This summer we will be heading to the east coast for a week at the same lake I have been going to since I was 5 years old. It is such an amazing place, full of so many happy memories for me. I am counting down the days and cannot wait to experience long lazy days with our feet dangling off the dock, lightening bugs, fresh farm stand corn on the cob, my kids playing with their cousins for 6 days straight, s'mores at the nightly campfire, and getting to visit my sweet Granny's resting place (we sprinkled her ashes about 9 years ago at our family's lakeside home and I love visiting her each year and sharing some quiet time with her). But, for every part of my excitement, there is nearly an equal measure of dread and gloom that I feel in the pit of my stomach when I think about the 5 hour plane ride that is taking us there. I have been searching near and far across the Internet for some inspiration and I have found it!

[sidenote: oh, internet, how i love you! What did we ever do without you?]

Chasing Cheerios has come up with a dozen activity bags for her toddler to use during a trip. She gives all the details on her site. I also tracked down a link for some Preschooler Activity Bags ideas for those of us with kids out of the toddler stage. As great as these are for traveling these would be wonderful to keep stashed somewhere and bring out whenever the need strikes. For the full list of Toddler activity bags, go here.

Here are some of my favorites that I am going to be copying for sure:

A mini potato head and a few of the potato head accessories.

An Opening & Closing activity bag (great for recycling some items that would otherwise get thrown away)

Some small containers of play-doh and a few play-doh tools

A mini reversible felt board

A color matching activity bag

Finger puppets activity bag

Sorting wacky macaroni

Those should last us about, umm, well, at least 30 minutes, right?!

Kristen

married, mom of 4 : desperately trying to avoid buying a minivan : has a goal to fix her own lunch instead of grazing off her children : resident expert on psychology and sarcasm, regularly fantasizes about sleeping in, blogs at Rage Against the Minivan.

Ali

married, mom of 2 : has googled “developmental milestones” more times than she can count : loves all things truly healthy and organic : resident expert on creativity and healthy living : regularly fantasizes about her kids sharing, blogs at Leaning In.

Heather M.

married, mom of 3 : expecting a baby boy, a fan of organic-living, mess-making, and cookie-baking, blogs at Cookie Mondays

Julie

married, mom of 3 : wife to a drummer-turned-youth pastor, resident expert on crafty goodness, blogs at Joy's Hope.

Heather K.

married, mom of two : has been known to rap to get the kids to do what she wants : over-thinks and second-guesses far too often : working on improving her skills in all areas of “playing cars”, blogs at The Extraordinary Ordinary.

Cari

married, mom of 2 busy boys, professional chef-turned-teacher-turned mom, avid cook, recipe collector, food blogger, blogs at Can I Get the Recipe?

Jessi married, mom of 3, a tasky homebody pastor's wife who likes routine, candles, and strategizing naptimes. Jessi blogs at naptime diaries.

Grace

married, mom of 2. jane of all trades, master of none: constantly battling her pack-rat tendencies: lover of pretty stationary, nap time, and playing hostess: born a New Yorker, grew up a Texan, currently masquerading as a California girl : always gets what she wants but never the way she expects it, blogs at Formerly Gracie

Sharon

married, mom of 3 exuberant children ages 7, 8 and 9; struggling to balance work as a writer with the kids’ demanding schedules; on a mission to get the kids to eat healthy, adventurous “grown up” food; resident expert in pre-‘tween backtalk; blogs at Whatever Things Are True and Be Bold or Go Home .

Michele

married, mom of 2 (one a missionary, the other a hostage negotiator), co-founder of Radiate PR (rad PR skilz used for building harmonious family brand - oh, and for consumer-tech clients too), resident expert on good kid reads, blogs at ReadOutLoud.

Meleesa

resident stylist and beauty expert : has a "costa rican" peaceful vibe flowing through her veins, runs her own salon and spa and creates natural beauty products and candles, she might be speaking English but she thinks in Spanish, blogs at Meleesa, the salon.

Elizabeth

married, three children, former pastry chef who can bake a cake, pretend to love boy sports and be a fierce advocate for her severely disabled child all at once; loves to steal away to daytime movies whenever she can and reads voraciously into the night; blogs regularly at a moon, worn as if it had been a shell.

On The Menu

GOING GRANOLA
ideas for going green, eating well, and living organically with your family. just a little bit crunchy . . . but in small, bite-sized pieces. one step at a time.

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PRODUCTS
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RECIPES
fast and healthy food your family will love. nuff said.

5 comments:

KristenAugust 6, 2008 at 9:32 AM
These are really cool! I especially like the opening/closing one. Let us know how it these work.
Kelly @ Love WellAugust 6, 2008 at 2:20 PM
Oh! Ali! I've learned the hard way that TSA won't allow Play-Dough on planes. Apparently, it's too similar to plastique explosives. I had a brand new pack of 12 mini containers confiscated and thrown out about a year ago. The agent was very kind about it, and I understand their position. But I wished I would have known before I packed it.

But otherwise, I think you've got some great ideas there. We fly OFTEN. Keeping them occupied is really the key. Do you have access to a laptop or portable DVD player? That's a great way to pass some time.
The Mama'sAugust 6, 2008 at 2:28 PM
Kelly -
Thanks so much for the tip! I am glad that I know that. I would have totally understood, but if my daughter witnessed the TSA peeps tossing her play-doh in the trash, it would have been a meltdown moment!

We will leave the play-doh at home. I was re-thinking that one anyway...picturing little bits of play-doh stuck to my pants.

Yes, we do have the dvd/laptop action going, and we will hold out as long as we can and save that for when the kids really need a distraction!

Thanks again for the tip! I am sure that other moms will benefit from knowing that too!

Ali
woosterweesterAugust 7, 2008 at 2:50 PM
Great ideas! I'm gonna use these at home too! I looked at those ideas and thought "DUH! Why didn't I think of that?!" Oh, and I LOVE your approach to recipes too. We're always looking for whole food, healthful recipes to try around here. Keep 'em comin'!
The Mama'sAugust 19, 2008 at 10:10 PM
We are back and I am really glad I prepped so much stuff. We got stuck in major delays across the country and had a ton of time to entertain ourselves. :)

The big hits were (drumroll please...):

-the opening and closing, the sorting wacky pasta, cheerios and lacing string, and the felt story boards. We actually had a couple of other kids in the airport join our posse to play with the felt boards and I was surprised that in this day and age of insane media toys that the felt boards were such a hit!

-Ali

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Staying Sane While Traveling on a Plane

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