We travel back to see family quite a bit since we have moved. We love going back to Essex seeing all our family and friends and giving Baby Bear time to spend with them. We do it that often I like to think of myself as a pro packer so here are some of my tips and tricks to making it as smooth and successful as possible.
My trick is to write a list of everything I need to pack for myself, Baby Bear and Bonnie as Daddy Bear takes the same stuff every time I know what I need to pack for him if he runs out of time to pack for himself about a week before we are due to travel. Most of the time these lists are the same but I’m finding the older Baby bear gets the lists are changing slightly.
I also make a list of things of random things we need to remember and electronics we are planning on bringing.
I keep these lists handy through out the week so I can add to them if I remember something that’s not already written down.
Fast forward to 2 days before we are due to travel, I pick out what clothes I want to pack Baby bear and myself and start packing them. I do it this early as most of the time some of Baby bears outfits need washing still where he has worn them during the week (poor planning on my half really!!). I also start putting all my daily makeup in a travel case with our travel toothbrush’s as this is normally one of the things i forget and don’t realise till I’m half way through getting ready and have to go and raid my little sisters makeup bag (thanks Kitkat).
The day before we travel I don’t do a lot really. This is when I make sure Baby bears tablet is on charge and I start packing our travel charger leads for all our devices, and with Daddy Bear working in IT that can be a lot. I also make sure we have all the snacks I am planning on packing for the journey, as both the boys are snackers when they travel.
The day is here, the day we finally get to go and see family for the weekend. Before I started organising myself I use to dread this day, I would stress myself out trying to make sure we had everything packed, going to the shop to get last minute snacks to find they didn’t have what I wanted. But since I have been prepping to go away better, this day has become very chilled and I even find myself going out with friends during the day while Daddy bear is at work. I also find it helps Baby bear travel if I don’t let him take his afternoon nap on the day we are due to travel as he is then more tired for the car journey.
By planning out what we need to be taking with us it has meant that we very rarely forget anything, which no only makes our visits easier but we then don’t have to go and buy a second of things so we have them with us.
Check in for part 2 of travelling with a toddler for my tips and tricks to help you mumma’s and daddy’s out there to travel with your toddlers.
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