4 lessons I learned from a family trip to Hawaii
by Charlie Brooks posted in Parenting
After years of planning and saving, our family finally managed to take a dream vacation in Hawaii. Getting there, which involved 14 hours of flying and shifting through five time zones, was a pain. Returning home introduced challenges. Everything in between was paradise.
While my wife and I had taken a similar vacation for our honeymoon, our kids had never traveled so far or spent so long away from home. As a result, the whole trip was a learning experience. In addition to plenty of souvenirs, we took the following lessons home with us.
Plane prizes are helpful
My wife was super prepared for our 14+ hours of flying. She had books and activities for each flight. She brought along lollipops to help the kids with the changing altitude. As a coup de grace, she packed some special toys to serve as prizes for enduring such a long series of flights. All of those techniques served us very well -- our kids stayed calm and listened well throughout most of our flying. I didn't have as many surprises up my sleeve, but I did download a Pokémon video game that I knew our kids would like. It served its purpose well during one of our long layovers:
I'm usually not a big fan of giving out prizes for doing the expected. However, long plane trips are something that even adults struggle with. Kids deserve the reward if they handle the travel well.
Video games are siren calls
Our hotel room had a Playstation 3 in it and games to rent, which immediately g...
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