The Travelling Guide ✈️
Keeping them occupied, packing hacks, and the suncream with the least child resistance.
Last week was the outfit. This week is the actual getting there. The real test is often the journey itself. The delayed gate. "Are we nearly there" on repeat somewhere over France. The suncream battle before you've even left the house, which, we all know well.
If you missed last week’s Holiday Fashion Edit or my money saving Summer Holiday guide, keep them at hand for when you might need them.
🧩 Keeping Them Occupied
Sticker books earn their space in the bag every single time. So do Dobble and Uno, which somehow never get old!
A little wrapped something for every hour of the journey keep them going, if you have the time. These can all double up as evening activities whilst you’re away too. And yes, the iPad’s in there, for the moments nothing else is working. No judgement, I’m not precious about screens on travel days.
🧳 Practical Packing
Less about the outfits. More the stuff you only remember you needed once you’re stood in departures without it.
Multi travel chargers to avoid the one plug situation. A spare outfit for everyone in hand luggage, because delays happen and so do spills (odds are, on you). Snacks that survive a hot car without turning into soup. Backpacks for the kids with wheels, otherwise you will end up carrying them all!
✈️ The Hacks Nobody Tells You
The stuff you only learn the hard way, usually mid-trip, usually at the worst possible moment.
Jet lag hits kids differently to adults. Little ones often adjust faster, but the first night is rough regardless. Don’t plan anything big for day one.
Bring PJs, fluffy socks and a blanket for any overnight flights, it can help their bodies move into night time mode.
Book seats in advance rather than hoping it sorts itself at the gate. Together as a family is worth the extra faff and cost.
Put precious teddies/toys in hand luggage BEFORE you go through security, screaming at the thought of them disappearing into the baggage scanner is not what you want, trust me…
Pack a “just in case” kit. Something calming, something distracting, painkillers, plasters. For their meltdowns. And yours.
Download everything you might need before you go. Airport wifi is not to be trusted.
Charge everything and double check it. Bring a power bank and make sure you’ve shared any online tickets to more than one device.
Mix some clothes across bags, just so you have at least one outfit if a suitcase was to be misplaced.
🧴 Suncream Saviours
The bit that always turns into a wrestling match. Someone always arches away at the last second.
Some go on properly and disappear. Others sit there white and stick to sand for the next hour. Worth working out which is which before you’re abroad, in a chemist, reading a label you can’t quite make out.
🦟 Mosquito Miracles
💛 Small Business Shout Out - Sequin Sisterhood
Sisters, both from a London fashion background, were running a clothing label together for years. Then a move to the seaside, and somewhere along the way, a big rethink about what they wanted to make and how.
So now they rescue pre-loved sequinned pieces, the ones sat unworn in the backs of wardrobes, and turn them into bags. Beautifully sparkly, twinning with your child, mood-lifting ones. Not just for festivals or big nights out, also for the grey Tuesday when you need a bit of shine.
That’s The Sequin Sisterhood, and I love the idea that joy doesn’t have to wait for a special occasion.
🎙️ Podcast Drop - 1 Whole year!!
One year of No Parental Guidance. We genuinely can’t believe it.
This week’s a bit of a love letter to the last twelve months. All the best bits. The vasectomy tape story that still makes us wince (you’ll know the one). The “crisp” revenge fart that had the whole studio in bits. Lucy Watson’s tea-and-toast moment, which somehow became iconic.
And the other side of it too. The moments that actually got us, the ones where guests properly opened up about pregnancy, loss, the hard bits nobody usually says out loud.
Grab a cuppa or something stronger. It’s a trip down memory lane.
None of this makes the journey glamorous. It just makes it survivable.
Which, let’s be honest, is the actual goal. And just remember, it’ll be worth it in the end - we hope!
Louise x
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