A Quick Guide to Stress Free Sightseeing with Kids

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A little planning will go a long way and BubbleBum can help!

Whether local or overseas, sightseeing can be one of the greatest pleasures of most any trip. Sightseeing with little kids? Not unless you’re prepared! Read on for tips on how to get ready for a trip that the whole family will remember.

Getting ready for the trip

Half the battle in ensuring a fun trip is the planning. A lot of the stress that you might encounter can be avoided, if you’ve taken the time to plan. It’s not necessary to have a minute by minute itinerary in place, but you do need to have some sort of strategy to ensure that you’re covered for contingencies and ‘emergencies’. Understand that ‘emergencies’, when you’re dealing with little kids, can be everything from a lost stuffed bear to a hunger meltdown to an actual medical emergency. Like the Scouts say, it’s best to be ‘be prepared’.

Have a plan B for most outings. Figure out what you will do if the weather isn’t cooperating for the outdoor hike that you had planned. What if someone in the group gets sick? How will you deal with that? And be realistic in your planning. A four year old is not going to happily skip along in the Louvre Museum for six hours. It’s just not going to happen. If it’s your biggest dream to visit Graceland and pay quiet homage to the King, you might want to plan a side trip while Grandma stays with the kids at the hotel pool.

One way to get a little more buy-in from the kids is, assuming they’re old enough, involve them in the planning of the trip. Looking over maps, reviewing tour guides, checking out locations on the internet: these are all interactive ways to get them to see your trip as an adventure! Let them pick out some of the sights that you will be seeing. It’s a good lesson in cooperation.

Essential equipment

However you are travelling to get to your destination, sightseeing usually involves some sort of motor vehicle: a private car or a group bus. Whichever you opt for, having the right equipment with you is essential.

Snacks, drinks and distractions are important. A bag of juice boxes, healthy snacks and a few toys from the dollar store to be handed out at well timed intervals can make any trip a little easier. And don’t feel bad about giving in to tech, when the coloring books get boring. A movie on the tablet will give everyone the ‘time out’ they need.

Let your Kids be Your Coaches

I want to share one of my posts from November 2012 again. It is one of my favorite, and I want to make sure even my new followers get a chance to read it!

Enjoy!

They are small. They didn't see many places on this planet so far. But anyways - or just because of that: kids can be great role models when it comes to confidence, or energy, or even stubbornness! There are many reasons to take a closer look on your kids' behaviors and to learn from them...

1// Light-heartedness

Kids don't stay pissed for too long. That's smart! Cause if you can't forgive others, you just hurt yourself. Plus kids accept the fact, that you can't change everything. Adults overthink certain things way too much! "I wish I had...!"
"I wish I was...!" thoughts are just killing your happiness.

2// Candor

Take two kids who never met before and put them together in one room. What happens? It's quiet possible that they will play and act as if they are oldest and best friends after 10 minutes. Kids are impartially. They give everybody a chance and just want to have a good time. For us adults it gets harder and harder to make friends or meet new people, especially from different surroundings. We avoid smalltalk - what destroys the chance of having an inspirational meeting.

3// Concentration and Awareness

Kids can beam themselves away. No? Yes! Just sit down and watch a boy building a spaceship with his Legos. He's gone. Not available. Kids have the ability to focus so hard on one little thing, they forget everything around them. Time and space.
We, the adults, are never really that focused. We try to multitask, do several things at the same time, but none of all this we REALLY DO. The way kids do it is definitely the right way. Inner peace, satisfaction, and the great feeling to finish a project!

4// Creativity

There is one place where everything is possible: inside a kid's head! Kids have a huge phantasy, including monsters and fairies. They think in several different ways. Most of the time the outcome of that is just crazy stuff - but sometimes they invent the most fabulous things, like "animal-noise-translation-machines". Or sentences like "When it's foggy outside, everything looks like whispered!". In our grown up heads, thoughts only go on straight tracks. That might be effective, but only leads into one direction. No surprising new ideas.
A nice idea: just grab something (your phone, remote...), touch it, feel it, as if you see it for the very first time, and then let your imagination go crazy while trying to figure out - what is this?

5// A nice portion of selfishness

Kids need help and they are not afraid to ask. Kids are the kings of delegation. Quite opposite from us. Women hesitate to delegate jobs. They want to do everything - in their job AND at home. And they want to do it perfectly! But sometimes it's smarter and healthier to just say "No!" or to ask others for help. Without thinking "What is in there for me? Will I get something back?". For kids it's easy to accept a gift. But if we get invited for dinner, we say "Ok, but next time it's our turn to invite you!" right away.

6// Don't be scared to fail!

Kids focus on their goals. They keep talking even though the hard word won't get out of their little mouths the way it's supposed to be. The grown-ups laugh about that gibberish? Who cares! Or when they start to walk and fall back on their little butts - they sometimes cry for a few seconds, get up, and try it again!
What would happen if adults had to learn how to walk? Most of them would probably keep laying on the ground, grumpy,  after the fifth try. "I will never make it! It's impossible to walk!"
There is this saying: The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is, that the successful people get up once more!

So get up, smile, and try again!

  Check out my amazing sponsor:

#NaBloPoMo // Let your Kids be Your Coaches

They are small. They didn't see many places on this planet so far. But anyways - or just because of that: kids can be great role models when it comes to confidence, or energy, or even stubbornness! There are many reasons to take a closer look on your kids' behaviors and to learn from them...

1// Light-heartedness

Kids don't stay pissed for too long. That's smart! Cause if you can't forgive others, you just hurt yourself. Plus kids accept the fact, that you can't change everything. Adults overthink certain things way too much! "I wish I had...!"
"I wish I was...!" thoughts are just killing your happiness.

2// Candor

Take two kids who never met before and put them together in one room. What happens? It's quiet possible that they will play and act as if they are oldest and best friends after 10 minutes. Kids are impartially. They give everybody a chance and just want to have a good time. For us adults it gets harder and harder to make friends or meet new people, especially from different surroundings. We avoid smalltalk - what destroys the chance of having an inspirational meeting.

3// Concentration and Awareness

Kids can beam themselves away. No? Yes! Just sit down and watch a boy building a spaceship with his Legos. He's gone. Not available. Kids have the ability to focus so hard on one little thing, they forget everything around them. Time and space.
We, the adults, are never really that focused. We try to multitask, do several things at the same time, but none of all this we REALLY DO. The way kids do it is definitely the right way. Inner peace, satisfaction, and the great feeling to finish a project!

4// Creativity

There is one place where everything is possible: inside a kid's head! Kids have a huge phantasy, including monsters and fairies. They think in several different ways. Most of the time the outcome of that is just crazy stuff - but sometimes they invent the most fabulous things, like "animal-noise-translation-machines". Or sentences like "When it's foggy outside, everything looks like whispered!". In our grown up heads, thoughts only go on straight tracks. That might be effective, but only leads into one direction. No surprising new ideas.
A nice idea: just grab something (your phone, remote...), touch it, feel it, as if you see it for the very first time, and then let your imagination go crazy while trying to figure out - what is this?

5// A nice portion of selfishness

Kids need help and they are not afraid to ask. Kids are the kings of delegation. Quite opposite from us. Women hesitate to delegate jobs. They want to do everything - in their job AND at home. And they want to do it perfectly! But sometimes it's smarter and healthier to just say "No!" or to ask others for help. Without thinking "What is in there for me? Will I get something back?". For kids it's easy to accept a gift. But if we get invited for dinner, we say "Ok, but next time it's our turn to invite you!" right away.

6// Don't be scared to fail!

Kids focus on their goals. They keep talking even though the hard word won't get out of their little mouths the way it's supposed to be. The grown-ups laugh about that gibberish? Who cares! Or when they start to walk and fall back on their little butts - they sometimes cry for a few seconds, get up, and try it again!
What would happen if adults had to learn how to walk? Most of them would probably keep laying on the ground, grumpy,  after the fifth try. "I will never make it! It's impossible to walk!"
There is this saying: The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is, that the successful people get up once more!
So get up, smile, and try again!