Since this blog is adoption related I wanted to share my tips and tricks for the airplane ride. Here are my lessons learned for flying solo with a elementary age child who speaks no English for 24 hours.
-Talk with you travel agent before hand and make sure you have plans for a flight home, it may be better to book before and change rather than have to purchase higher price tickets-ouch!
- Go to the Hilton and practice using their scanner (this helped N not be afraid when we went to the airport)
-Make sure you know where your gate is- and confirm which one it is-multiple times!
-Be prepared to stand your ground in the airport. You will get shoved and pushed in line.
- Bring melatonin and use it, your child will not sleep with out it!
- Bring plenty of snacks (that you don't have to by in the airport if you are going back to the US). N hated that airplane food and ate like 5 rolls to fill up.
- Don't bother bringing a book to read- you won't read it!
- Watch the soda intake-my child was ok with it but yours may not be and get sick- that would not be fun!
- Dress your child in pj's if they have a night flight, helped out N to understand it was time to sleep and then we had a fresh outfit for the homecoming.
-You may want to consider a pull up, all the change in air pressure (and possible soda intake) can make your kiddo have to go a lot, and if the seatbelt sign is on- your screwed! (We called our special airplane underwear that pilots wear, worked like a charm!)
-When we went to the airport it was just my husband and then when we got home the other kids where there, it worked really well as far as not overwhelming him.
-Bring socks for your feet and theirs if you have flip flops- it gets cold!
-Have someone talk to your child about the airplane toilets in amharic, they are loud and scary!
-Let go of your idea that they wont watch the tv the whole time-it is not worth the trouble, let them watch the movies on the plane an it will most likely be the same movie... you have the rest of their lives to limit it.
I think that is all, if any of you have any other comments or suggestions- post them below in the comment section.
Happy travels!
-Talk with you travel agent before hand and make sure you have plans for a flight home, it may be better to book before and change rather than have to purchase higher price tickets-ouch!
- Go to the Hilton and practice using their scanner (this helped N not be afraid when we went to the airport)
-Make sure you know where your gate is- and confirm which one it is-multiple times!
-Be prepared to stand your ground in the airport. You will get shoved and pushed in line.
- Bring melatonin and use it, your child will not sleep with out it!
- Bring plenty of snacks (that you don't have to by in the airport if you are going back to the US). N hated that airplane food and ate like 5 rolls to fill up.
- Don't bother bringing a book to read- you won't read it!
- Watch the soda intake-my child was ok with it but yours may not be and get sick- that would not be fun!
- Dress your child in pj's if they have a night flight, helped out N to understand it was time to sleep and then we had a fresh outfit for the homecoming.
-You may want to consider a pull up, all the change in air pressure (and possible soda intake) can make your kiddo have to go a lot, and if the seatbelt sign is on- your screwed! (We called our special airplane underwear that pilots wear, worked like a charm!)
-When we went to the airport it was just my husband and then when we got home the other kids where there, it worked really well as far as not overwhelming him.
-Bring socks for your feet and theirs if you have flip flops- it gets cold!
-Have someone talk to your child about the airplane toilets in amharic, they are loud and scary!
-Let go of your idea that they wont watch the tv the whole time-it is not worth the trouble, let them watch the movies on the plane an it will most likely be the same movie... you have the rest of their lives to limit it.
I think that is all, if any of you have any other comments or suggestions- post them below in the comment section.
Happy travels!
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