Tips for travelling with a baby as a solo parent

So we published a post recently with tips for travelling with your kids and I wanted to add another post for travelling alone with your kids.

You may not know but I am a solo mum and we’ve been travelling since Ruby was really young. What I learned pretty quickly was most of that advice I had been given is not feasible when you are travelling on your own, crammed into a seat in economy with let’s just say little room to maneuvere. Here are my tips for travelling alone with an infant – I couldn’t wait until she is over two now so she has her own seat!

1. Start praying that the people sitting beside you or in front of you are parents too (or just nice) because you’ll need their help and patience with your child!
2. Book a seat, an aisle seat, so you can let your toddler’s legs hang out that side and have slightly more room.
3. Although we had a window seat going and she had great fun pulling up and pushing down the blind for an hour so maybe a window seat is best
4. Forget about bringing your ipad or books or anything that will take up space to entertain – you can’t pull down the tray with a little one on your lap and there’s zero room for anything else either
5. Bring small things, Ruby played with her teddy and a few loops  (best investment of a fiver I ever made last year) and Fisher Price little people.
6. Food wise again small things that are easy to hold, we had a pot of blueberries which worked ok until she tipped the pot and they spilled on the floor and then it was pretty impossible to bend over and pick them up, cue crying. Bread sticks or some rice cakes might work better.
7. Expect your kid to kick the seat in front, I remember being that person in that seat cursing the child behind me, but now I can see there literally is so little room it just happens. I was lucky both ways I had a parent in front so they got it when I apologised on landing.
8. Bring one piece of hand luggage, I took a rucksack type bag (I recommend the cabinmax bag I got one on Amazon) and her nappy bag, what a disaster trying to carry both and lift her up the steps not to mention getting them into overhead locker while she tried to run down the aisle and past the people queuing to sit down.
   
9. Put all the snacks and bottle or water and toys into one large ziplock bag (I love the Ikea ones as you will have seen before) – it’s easier for security to check everything and you’re not looking for stuff to take out when you get on the plane.
10. Try and relax, I know my nerves and consciousness of her crying and kicking the seat made her more anxious – I’ll be concentrating really hard on relaxing the next time!

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