tips for flight with three little ones and where should we stay!?

[Guest seekingsunshine]

Hello everyone!

 

been looking on this site for ages - i'm addicted! but never posted before!

 

we're hoping to move to Adelaide this September, i've got duel nationality, so we're in the process of a spouse visa for my husband, matt, an electrician. our children are australian citizens by descent! poor matts the difficulty at the moment!

 

when we come over in september we will be travelling with three year old twins (just turned three) and a twelve week old baby!

 

does anyone else think we are mad?! my mum has offered to come with us, specifically to help on the flight!

 

we want to fly with singapore, cos i've flown with them before and they go direct from manchester - cant be doing with changing at london too!

 

does anyone have any tips for the flight? i'm a bit worried about flying with such a young baby...has anyone done this? we're going to book flights for after twelve weeks so baby will have had first loads of jabs but this swine flu is making me panic even more!

 

also, any advice on where to stay when we get there? we've been looking at areas like happy valley, woodcroft, morphett vale etc.... we'd need somewhere furnished for at least eight weeks thats not too expensive!!

 

anyone advice about flight or housing would be much appreciated!

 

Helen, 27 & Matt 30

[Guest GIPSY]

Hi There

 

I would firstly say you are brave

 

In all seriousness though, it is one way, so once it's done, it's done.

 

My daughter will be almost three when we fly and she was 2 1/2 when we did our reccie in November. We have chosen a night flight from Heathrow which means that she will sleep during the first leg of the journey to Hong Kong - she slept the whole of the first flight last time so we have chosen almost the same one.

 

When she was awake, we spent the time watching the TV - and I took lots of little presents wrapped up for different stages of the journey. We took colouring books and small jigsaws, cards, etc. - she was pretty good for the journey. We did have a problem with the seatbelt as she really wouldn't keep it on, but that was our only main problem.

 

Coming back we did have a young childless couple in front of us and my daughter was having a bit of a tantrum, terrible two's - they complained - you will always get that, but at the end of the day, no child is perfect and you just have to do your best.

 

I reckon you'll be fine,I bet your 12 week old will be a little angel.

 

Hope this helps and good luck

 

Hayley

[Guest Dave & Carole]

Hi & Welcome to the site.

 

We did a long haul flight with a 15 month old & the best bit of advice I was given would certainly be relevant for your twins:

 

Get a bag (PE kitbag type size) fill it with little toys - mixture of old & new. However before you put them in, wrap them up! They love the unwrapping of each toy & it keeps the others a "secret" until they unwrap those. Dish them out over intervals of time. I've passed this on to others with children ages between 18 months & 10 and its worked a treat for all!

 

As for your twelve week old - I guess it depends on how content a baby it turns out to be! It will still be breast feeding/bottle feeding regularly at that age so at least if its upset you can just feed it I guess. You never know it might be a sleepy baby and just snooze the flight away.

 

By the way, where abouts in Wales are you?

 

Good luck with Visa & plans.

 

Carole x

[Runcorn2Adelaide]

Hi

 

Come via Singapore and book a room at the transit hotel.......

Allows you to have a bse within the airport, and get some real sleep on a bed for a few hours.

 

Si

[Guest nurse sue]

Hi & Welcome to the site.

 

We did a long haul flight with a 15 month old & the best bit of advice I was given would certainly be relevant for your twins:

 

Get a bag (PE kitbag type size) fill it with little toys - mixture of old & new. However before you put them in, wrap them up! They love the unwrapping of each toy & it keeps the others a "secret" until they unwrap those. Dish them out over intervals of time. I've passed this on to others with children ages between 18 months & 10 and its worked a treat for all!

 

As for your twelve week old - I guess it depends on how content a baby it turns out to be! It will still be breast feeding/bottle feeding regularly at that age so at least if its upset you can just feed it I guess. You never know it might be a sleepy baby and just snooze the flight away.

 

By the way, where abouts in Wales are you?

 

Good luck with Visa & plans.

 

Carole x

 

 

Hiya,

we flew to adelaide in 2007 with our then 6 year old twins and 9 year old daughter. would go with caroles advice about pe bag and fill with wrapped things to do - we did this for our kids, but they were too engrossed with the tv/games module to be bothered with them! in front of us were a couple with a baby and 2 toddlers - we pretty much ketp an eye on them for the parents!! and singapore air staff are excellent with littlies - on previous flights with them ive seen cabin crew take little uns for walks around the cabin, and sit and play with them.

worse case scenario is that they are ignored by cabin staff, are grumpy and cry the whole way - my response to that is, bugger the others - your kids are important and the chances of seeing any of your fellow passengers ever again are 0.00001% so just take that 24 hours out of your life and dont worry.

dont stress about it if they upset others - you have paid for your seats just like anyone else, and kids will be kids. its a means to an end, practice your best scowl for the misserys on board and keep your sense of humour.

with any luck you will get excellent cabin crew and sympathetic fellow passengers (my daughter spent several hours playing with one of the toddlers in the seats in front of us) - plus when my twin boys got themselves locked in the loos it keeps the other passengers amused.

you can walk around as much as you like, with some luck you will come across other parents with fractious kiddies - you can do circuits of the cabin for hours and chat non stop with sympathetic parents.

 

good luck, and try and keep your sense of humour. a friend who flew with a young baby who cried pretty much non stop ended up doing relays of the plane with her hubby - they ended up playing 'baby bingo'; they noted down who was the most pissed off by their poor babe and took it in turns to note down on each circuit of the cabin what each response was on each circuit

smile lots, and to hell with any miserable buggers

[Guest Django]

We flew with Singapore last September with a 7, 5, 2 and a 1 year old. Have to say the flight was no where near as bad as I thought it would be. Because we flew out at around their normal bed time they soon crashed out and slept most of the way.

The cabin staff were fantastic but their idea of warming a bottle for Joe was a bit wanting. :biglaugh: We also booked into a transit hotel which was great value, This also allowed us use of the airports pool. We stayed there for the day and then flew out again that night and the little ones slept again. Niamh didn't even remember taking off as she was sparko within minutes of taking her seat and I had to wake her to strap her in for landing.

 

As for rentals I would give Tyke or Roo1 a shout as they both have short term rentals in those areas and can I add that we love the area.

 

Pete

[Guest back clan]

Singapore is a great airline.

if you ask them they should be able to give you a seat with a baby bassinet. (a cot that attaches to the bulkhead). I used to fly as crew and they were great because you can put your baby down to sleep and they are secure. As for your other kids give them plenty to keep them entertained.

When we went on holiday with our daughter longhaul I used to put her in her pjs on night flights which always seemed to help her know that she had to go to sleep.

Don't worry about the other passengers boisterous kids are a huge preference to drunk adults

[Guest brianlynnette]

Hiya,

we flew to adelaide in 2007 with our then 6 year old twins and 9 year old daughter. would go with caroles advice about pe bag and fill with wrapped things to do - we did this for our kids, but they were too engrossed with the tv/games module to be bothered with them! in front of us were a couple with a baby and 2 toddlers - we pretty much ketp an eye on them for the parents!! and singapore air staff are excellent with littlies - on previous flights with them ive seen cabin crew take little uns for walks around the cabin, and sit and play with them.

worse case scenario is that they are ignored by cabin staff, are grumpy and cry the whole way - my response to that is, bugger the others - your kids are important and the chances of seeing any of your fellow passengers ever again are 0.00001% so just take that 24 hours out of your life and dont worry.

dont stress about it if they upset others - you have paid for your seats just like anyone else, and kids will be kids. its a means to an end, practice your best scowl for the misserys on board and keep your sense of humour.

with any luck you will get excellent cabin crew and sympathetic fellow passengers (my daughter spent several hours playing with one of the toddlers in the seats in front of us) - plus when my twin boys got themselves locked in the loos it keeps the other passengers amused.

you can walk around as much as you like, with some luck you will come across other parents with fractious kiddies - you can do circuits of the cabin for hours and chat non stop with sympathetic parents.

 

good luck, and try and keep your sense of humour. a friend who flew with a young baby who cried pretty much non stop ended up doing relays of the plane with her hubby - they ended up playing 'baby bingo'; they noted down who was the most pissed off by their poor babe and took it in turns to note down on each circuit of the cabin what each response was on each circuit

smile lots, and to hell with any miserable buggers

oh my god im sitting here laughing my head off at your post, dont know when were gonna get out there but were coming out on a spouse visa, our youngest is nearly 2 and hes into everything doesnt like feeling restricted at all and im having panic attacks at the thought of being on a plane with him for 24 hours, we should write a book between us, and yes your right you paid for your seat so sod them i find people like that who complain quite funny, and yes its a 1 way flight so you probably wont see them again haha x

[LisaWebster87]

i would defo suggest stopping somewhere over night, when i went ove back in april we had a 1hr stop in dubai, it was awful enough and that was w/o a young kid, i am also a citizen by decent and am moving across with my mum when the house is sold, have you considerd trust housing? we are looking into it but if you are entitled to it it defo worth looking into until you get settled.

[Guest Skippy]

Well, I must say the air hostesses are all very helpful. They will help you if you feel a bit overwhelmed. I flew with Singapore and they gave me and all my sisters (5 10 11 & 12) little fun packs and a few really small cuddley toys. It kept us occupied most of the flight and there's loads of kids programs on the TV for your three year olds. The childrens food comes first and that always helps. It's the right environment for the children to sleep in at night as it's quiet and fairly dark.

We're staying in a lovely rental in Sheidow Park and we passed out as soon as we got there. One of my sisters did get a bit air sick, and one of the air hostesses gave her half a tablet to take. She said that she should take them a half hour before the flight. Might be a good idea to pack them just incase? You'll soon get over the flight and it will come right,

 

Have a good flight,

 

Beth, 12