Traveling with 5 Kids

I just finished a cross-country move with FIVE kids. That in itself was one of the hardest parts about this move, so let’s talk about the trip!

Always the big question on any big trip. Flying with 5 kids is EXPENSIVE. I have two under two but has anyone else ever tried to fly with the 18 months to 2 age in their lap? I’ve done it with other kids and it is like trying to keep a mountain lion on your lap for an entire 2 or 3 hours. Basically impossible. Honestly, they should just change the lap child age limit to 18 months because anything over that they will be out of your lap the whole time anyway.

Okay flying is expensive but driving takes longer. Although after spending 12 hours at airports I’m wondering if these days it saves you much time to fly. Driving you have more control, you can take breaks, get food, rest, see different things. I considered driving for a really long time. But ultimately it came down to this: Driving 5 small kids and 2 dogs, a cat and a tortoise across country would be 7 long days. Flying with 5 small kids would be one long day.

I chose one long day.

Divide and Conquer

Actually, we split up the move. This worked well last time with only 3 kids and far less distance to travel. Essentially Travis begs a friend to help him. We fly the friend down, they help load and they drive a vehicle while Travis drives the truck and trailer cross country with all our animals. In this case, they left before the movers had truly begun and were the first ones there so Travis could close on our new house.

Meanwhile we stayed home to supervise movers and when we ran out of belongings, we moved in to my parents house. Then my mom and I took on the challenge of 5 kids vs two flights.

Our Trip

Things were going wrong from the start. I chose an 11:30 AM flight for a few reasons, number 1 I didn’t want to wake everyone up early, try to find all of our stuff, and get out. I knew getting out of the house was going to be stressful and the last thing I needed was that stress with a time crunch.

With this many kids we had to take two cars. Thank goodness for friends because my mom asked one to drive her and my two boys while my dad drove me and my 3 girls. We should of done a test run though because the middle seat didn’t have a seatbelt connected so that took a panicked 10 minutes trying to figure that out. Then on the way I get a text that our flight is delayed and our seats have changed and we are no longer sitting together. Yup apparently even though I’m flying with 5 minors and booked six seats, three in front of three, they could just split us up and leave my 7-year-old in a row with a 5 year old and 4 year old. So, I spent the whole drive stressing.

We get to the airport and have a mountain of stuff. I’m talking an entire mountain. Car seats, suitcases, backpacks. We start condensing while my dad parks. The toddler gets immediately strapped into a stroller because you can’t trust toddlers. Everyone else is told to freeze in place. I go around stacking car seats and zipping them up in travel bags. For me, it was easiest if each big kid was in charge of their own backpack. So, my 4, 5 and 7 year olds had a backpack with a tablet, headphones, books and a bag of snacks I had pre-packed the day before. My toddler’s belongings were shoved into my backpack (Lets be real I wasn’t going to do anything on this plane ride) and then I had a diaper bag with plenty of diapers and changes of clothes plus an extra bag with extra snacks.

I gave us 2 hours at the airport but with the flight delays we really had nearly 4. Which was lucky because the line to change our seats back and check our bags took almost an hour. Security was a breeze. GET TSA PRECHECK I can not say it enough. If you are traveling with children by yourself TSA precheck is an absolute life saver. The hardest part is taking babies out of strollers so they can go through but sometimes its okay to rely on the kindness of strangers to help you manage all that.

What I Brought

My kids are not tablet kids. They watch tv yes but not a ton normally and they certainly do get handed their tablets often. However, tablets and TV are perfect for times like this. We settled in near our gate and I was able to get tablets and headphones hooked up for everyone. On that note- don’t get a cheap tablet or cheap headphones. They require everyone to wear headphones on the airplane and I have long since learned to just get the ipad and get the beats Bluetooth headphones. My mom and I had gone shopping for snacks and I split all the snacks up into these little individual ziplock bags so my kids could choose what they wanted on the flight.

BUY MORE SNACKS. Snacks are the key to flying. I had plenty but you need a lot. I mean a LOT. Bored? Eat a snack. Hungry? Eat a snack. Whining? Eat a snack. Snacks keep you from having to buy expensive airplane food. Snacks keep them entertained on the plane. Snacks keep you from figuring out lunch and dinner. Get many and make them easy to open. In hindsight I should of opened all my four year olds snacks before we even got on.

I had gotten Lunchables to save time so we passed those out and everyone ate that perfectly content. Airports are the time to let your toddler roam so he walked his happy little self on every bathroom trip and every trip to fill water bottles or throw out trash. The more walking the better.

Getting Around

In my experience its absolutely worth it to bring strollers to gate check but not car seats. I prefer a small umbrella stroller for my toddler and for my baby I do the stroller that the infant seat straps in on. Easy to fold so you aren’t fighting them. Light weight. But it makes running from one gate to another SO much easier. Besides the infant seat, car seats tend to be bulky, heavy and don’t fit well in the seats. They are nice because usually your small toddler will still sleep in it but often your feral toddler fights that too and is still all over you and now you have a bulky car seat in your way. I have way too many kids to wheel them around on cool suitcases so I made sure their backpacks were light enough and made them walk.

It was a lot of telling them to line up and follow each other. Kids that are not good listeners hold the stroller. Find elevators whenever possible. Despite your well thought out plans your 3 hour layover can quickly turn to a one hour layover. Remain calm, take it slow, and take it one step at a time. The more you stress the harder it gets.

And lastly: have someone meet you at the airport. By the time you get to your destination you are absolutely exhausted. Seeing Travis and his friend was like seeing two angels there to share our burden. It just makes loading the car, installing car seats, rolling suitcases around and keeping track of kids that much easier. If at all possible, have someone meet you.

So after 12 long hours we finally made it to Maryland in the middle of the night. To sum it up: Bring snacks. Bring strollers but not car seats. Buy the good tablets and the good headphones and splurge a little- let your kids have screen time. Exercise your toddler at airports. TSA precheck will save a LOT of chaos. And lastly: REMAIN CALM. One small step at a time. One catastrophe at a time. Don’t think about the next flight or the next step because flying is unpredictable and a delay could throw you off. Get through the step that you are on and tackle the next one when you get to it.

And remember: It’s just one hard day. You can do one hard day.