Comments on: How to travel light – with kids

By: Marcia (Organising Queen)

Marcia (Organising Queen) — Tue, 08 May 2018 13:39:10 +0000

In reply to Carrie. Agreed! That's my favourite line too :)

By: Danielle

Danielle — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 05:46:20 +0000

i frequently travel with >7kg in hand luggage. just a bit over. they don’t check it. and if they did, the worst thing that would happen is that they would take it off you and check it for you. Just like they do on those horrible american airlines if you are travelling codeshare (bc you are traveling internationally) so are a low priority customer. so they take everything off you – even your breast pump equipment…!!!) But it totally digress. i reckon you’d get away with it 🙂

By: Rinna

Rinna — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:58:26 +0000

In reply to lauravanderkam. I hear you on the lost luggage. To me, that risk is worth it compared to the risk of not having what we need with 4 kids. I'd just rather overpack a bit. I found I was right on the money with my middle 2 kids. Slight overpacking for the 13 yo and almost 3 yo (the latter ended up, ironically, being much less messy than the 8 yo). Overall, I just enjoyed handing over the suitcases on checkin, paying my $25 luggage fee and not having to worry. If it were a vacation where we moved from place to place a lot, that would be different story.

By: lauravanderkam

lauravanderkam — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:36:38 +0000

In reply to Rinna. @Rinna- we didn't have to shop or do laundry either! 3 kids and one week, so a bit less, but we really didn't run out of stuff. After our lost luggage episode in Montreal I'm just really wary of having vacation interrupted by having to track down a bag, or wait for bag.

By: Rinna

Rinna — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 03:15:54 +0000

I think I’m a hybrid. When I travel alone for business, I pack very light – almost always just a carry-on. However, we just came back from 1.5 weeks in Cancun with our 4 kids, and there’s no freaking way I’d want to pack light. I needed not to have to do laundry or go shopping while on vacation, and kids can be messy. In fact, I don’t even see it as desirable (for me) to pare down the packing for a long family trip. Don’t really see the benefit at this point, though perhaps when all the kids are older my views will change.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 13:56:33 +0000

We fly quite regularly with our special needs daughter and check our bags. She is 12 and a very good traveller but we don’t want the hassle of looking after our bags and making sure she doesn’t run off or any other distractions she might throw at us. For example last time we flew we decided she was old enough so we would try carry on. Big mistake. She was more concerned with the bags and playing with them we almost missed our connecting flight. When we arrive at our destination and wait for our bags she has an opportunity to move about which she greatly needs after sitting for so long. The one time we had carry on she still headed to the carousel for bags and refused to leave until all bags were off. Not a time saver and very frustrating. We will continue to check bags and enjoy the freedom it gives for no fights. Just another spin why people may need to check bags. We still pack light though as we don’t want to pay extra fees.

By: Claire Hart

Claire Hart — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 11:19:38 +0000

I read this with interest. I’m traveling later in the year to Europe with friends from Australia. I can’t do carry on as it is a 7 kilo limit. It frustrate me as l do travel light round 9 to 11 kilos. I’ve like most forgotten stuff which l have purchsed later whilst on the move.

By: Alexicographer

Alexicographer — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 02:10:29 +0000

In reply to Gillian.

A carseat alternative is the Ride Safer Travel Vest (you can find it at Amazon among other places) which as I understand it is rated to the same safety standard as carseats for those at least 3 years old and at least 30 lbs. We used it for my son on several trips (he is now past the carseat stage) and found it useful — and it’s also nice to be able to take places where changing cars or catching a ride (or a taxi) is a possibility but you don’t want to or can’t really manage to bring along a carseat. Also, it makes possible squeezing 3 kids into a space where carseats would make that impossible (even if 2 are still in carseats). Of course, with multiple kids one would have to make the decision how many of them it was (or wasn’t) worth buying; OTOH, unlike us, you could presumably use it over a sequence of kids, depending on spacing.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 20:52:21 +0000

It is amazing how much you don’t need when you just don’t have it with you. I’m a big fan of the Swiss Army knife approach to packing. Bring things that are multipurpose. As you say above, the hardest part about that is the shoes.

I’m also a fan of letting the kids do their own packing, within guidelines and supervision. My son still hasn’t forgotten the trip when (aged 10) he forgot his underwear on a two week trip to Vietnam, which wasn’t the end of the world, as we did a bit of hand washing, but a good life lesson in consequences!

We travelled the world for a year as a family, with one backpack each, so took more than you have above, but the kids backpacks were only 6kilos each, so not much more!
http://www.ramblingabout.com/2010/11/13/packing/

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 20:04:16 +0000

My husband and I are carry-on-only people. I’ve had my bag lost (or at least, I have been separated from my bag) too many times in my younger years. And I’ve had enough flights messed up to know that being separated from your luggage is a real risk… if you’re running to catch a connection, your bag is probably not going to make it with you. And if you’re not ending up at your final destination, you’ve got serious problems. I’ve taken several trips alone with my young daughter, and it was intense, but I made it. I brought a car seat, suitcase, backpack, and handbag, as well as her — all carry on. When she was little, I had to pack all of my pumping supplies, in addition to general baby stuff, so that was a big load. When she was really little, I used a baby carrier wrap to transport her (no stroller). I usually bring a backpack as my main luggage, but when I had to bring the car seat alone, I brought a roller bag so that I could strap the car seat to the roller bag, and then pull the whole thing together. So carry her or hold her hand with one arm, and pull the roller bag with the other. Sometimes I’m a little jealous of the people who check their bags, but when things get crazy with delays/cancellations/etc, I’m happy that I have mine with me. If I’m traveling with my husband, or older step kids, carry on is a breeze since it’s much easier to share the load.