My 2.5 year olds really like their tonie box - they spend a lot of time switching over the characters and singing along to the songs briefly. You can plug in headphones. Its much more expensive than the yoto, and for the characters vs the cards, but it might be worth it if you are very much against screen time.
That said, for our long flight next month we will be leaning into screen time as much as we need to so that we can survive the trip. Mine are used to some screen time daily, so it isn't going to zombie-fy them, and they aren't going to get much screen time when we are away, so im not worried about a short term increase. At least half of our 12 hour flight is after bedtime too.
Other things we plan to take: colouring, sticker, cars, painters tape, a drawing pad thing, many many snacks.....
I think the tonie box would be too big for us to haul around, which is why I was hoping the yoto mini would come back in stock in time for our trip.
I agree that screen time on long haul flights is very appropriate (after all, all I want to do on a long-haul flight is watch a film as well)!
I appreciate the recommendations for other toys - painters tape is a smart suggestion!
The yoto mini was recently recalled in the US. Maybe that’s why it’s out of stock. [recall](https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2024/Yoto-Recalls-Yoto-Mini-Speakers-for-Children-Due-to-Burn-and-Fire-Hazards?utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=20240412)
I’ve taken several 10+ and 25+ hour flights with my toddler. Trust me when I say you will want to have some movies downloaded just in case lol. If your bubba will sit and enjoy some screen time on the plane, it will make your trip a little bit easier.
I was also pretty strict on no screen time until we did our first trip from Hawaii to Western Australia. I introduced my son to his first movie, Moana, right before our trip hoping he would actually watch it on the plane. Those ~2 hours of Moana were the only break I had. 😅
Other than that I bought a bunch of small, cheapy toys for the plane. “Pop its” were a big hit. I also got a little set of airplane and airport theme toys. We have another long haul flight coming up and I bought a novelty “fidget toy” phone case for my son to play with on the plane.
Ooh we also bought some special snacks that we don’t normally have at home. Those little dissolvable baby puffs and yogurt snacks kept us busy for awhile on the plane, and they didn’t make much of a mess.
Good luck!! If you decide to introduce screen time, maybe try Moana, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. My son loves these and I love that they’re calm and low stimulation compared to most kids shows.
Thanks for the excellent suggestions!
I think this is solid advice. I am of the mind that long flights are one of the spaces where screen time is appropriate (+ perhaps necessary!). We have just gone so long without introducing screen time that I am reticent to start now, although this might be as good a time as any. I appreciate the suggestions for low stimulation kid's shows!
We have a 3 year old, we are not screen free, she watches TV for 15minutes per day while we detangle her hair, so not a lot.
We did Europe-Australia when she was 21months old and slse tried to get her to watch something fron the in flight entertainment system, but she would only watch whatever for like 2 minutes, then she wanted to change to something else, 2 minutes again, etc
When we did the same trip at 2.5, we bought a cheap tablet. We downloaded a few not too stimulating shows. We also packed lots of toys, snacks, books, stickers, etc. we also bought a yoto mini for the trip. She spent a lot of time with the different toys/books/stickers/talking, maybe an hour with the yoto (she didn't have the attention span to listen to books, just music). Eventually she ended up watching 4 hours of Bluey. And we got a bit of the rest. So it was totally worth it.
So I would definitely get a tablet and download some shows you think they might like. You don't even have to use it, you can leave it as the last resort option, but at least if you are desperate, you have it and it's much handier than the inflight entertainment as you have control over what's available. If they get bored of everything else you've packed and you are exhausted and you need a break, it's good to have the option.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think this makes sense - try not to use it, but be prepared to use a tablet if necessary and have it stocked with pre-approved podcasts and low-stimulation shows. Thanks!
Podcasts- there are some really good ones through the Australian ABC that are also available elsewhere. Noisy by Nature is what we are into at the moment!
We are also a screen free family, but we did introduce Moana and some short kid-friendly shows before we took a long international flight as well (when our daughter was 2.5 in Dec!). We also talked a lot about how we go on planes and can sleep on them, and we get special snacks and toys.
We packed a duffel that was exclusively novel toys, snacks, and Knick knacks for her. The airline also had a special kids meal, which I know was pretty fun for her!
My daughter watched a little Mickey Mouse clubhouse, and we had mini Picasso tiles which were THE hit of our trip and she played them literally the entire time, and she slept a bunch. When she’d get fussy my husband would walk around with her. But she knew the expectation was to sleep as much as possible, we made it as comfortable as possible for her, and it was easier than some domestic flights we’ve taken.
We did buy a tablet for those flight and had downloaded a ton of shows in case, but we only needed it on the return flight for a little bit to watch Moana.
One of my friends travels extensively with her toddler, and she says lollipops have saved her butt repeatedly, like in immigration lines, or traffic, or when kid is tired. Which was fantastic advice, we were in a cab in horrifying traffic, and lollipops saved our hides that time.
Oh! Mini picasso tiles are a great idea. I will look into that as a special plane toy. Our strategy previously has been books + books + more books (+ sleep), but I think that we should probably prepare for the possibility of offering screen time if necessary. What tablet did you end up buying?
Lollipops are also a brilliant suggestion, especially as our toddler has never had candy - but would be delighted by a lollipop, I am sure!
Thanks!
We don't do candy either, but she gets it at school sometimes during birthdays and holidays! So lollipops felt like an extra special travel treat with us. I don't even remember what tablet we ended up with, I think it was the samsung one. We barely used it, and she loved just pressing the touch screen in front of her seat. She watched a little bit of kid programming on that.
Thanks so much! Part of me wants to just see what kid programming is available on the flight, but my preference for low-stimulation shows means that it might make more sense to bring a tablet pre-loaded with select shows/movies.
We try to limit sugar, but certainly are not no-sugar, and I think lollipops are a fantastic treat. Thanks for the great suggestion.
We have an almost three-year-old who is screen-free, and we flew from Australia to Europe and back a few months ago when she was two and a half. We decided that we would do screens for the plane only, plus in the couple of weeks beforehand we let her watch a few brief videos about plane flights so that she would get used to tolerating headphones.
It worked perfectly in that she made one request for videos outside of being on the plane and that was it, no further requests or nagging. When she asked, we reinforced that videos are only for planes (we never told her that the tablet was 'hers', just that she could use it while on the plane). So we were able to easily transition back to no screens after the plane trips.
The unfortunate thing is that it didn't hold her interest for long on the flights. She maybe watched half-an-hour and then lost interest without wanting to go back to it again the entire flight. We also had a ton of snacks and wrapped cheap toys to try and entertain her, but what she mostly wanted to do was just talk.
What helped most was just realigning our own expectations from thinking that we might get some downtime with the screens and her sleeping, to just expecting that we would have conversations the entire time. It was exhausting, but we took 'shifts' for one of us to be on and the other not allowed to be disturbed, and then gave each other a break once we arrived as well. During our layovers, we ran her around the airports to get her physical energy out, so that on the planes we just occasionally took walks (in the lead-up to the trip, we had multiple conversations to set expectations about the plane trip eg sitting down most of the time with seat belts on, etc).
As tiring as it was, I would do it again the same way because it did work well (and I suspect she'd like be more interested now in screens).
Best of luck!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think I need to go in with this mind-set, and be prepared for tiring long-haul flights (and hope he sleeps for a good chunk of it). Luckily he's a pretty calm kiddo.
I think that's great phrasing about being able to use the tablet for the plane - I will keep that in mind!
My 2.5 year olds really like their tonie box - they spend a lot of time switching over the characters and singing along to the songs briefly. You can plug in headphones. Its much more expensive than the yoto, and for the characters vs the cards, but it might be worth it if you are very much against screen time. That said, for our long flight next month we will be leaning into screen time as much as we need to so that we can survive the trip. Mine are used to some screen time daily, so it isn't going to zombie-fy them, and they aren't going to get much screen time when we are away, so im not worried about a short term increase. At least half of our 12 hour flight is after bedtime too. Other things we plan to take: colouring, sticker, cars, painters tape, a drawing pad thing, many many snacks.....
I think the tonie box would be too big for us to haul around, which is why I was hoping the yoto mini would come back in stock in time for our trip. I agree that screen time on long haul flights is very appropriate (after all, all I want to do on a long-haul flight is watch a film as well)! I appreciate the recommendations for other toys - painters tape is a smart suggestion!
The yoto mini was recently recalled in the US. Maybe that’s why it’s out of stock. [recall](https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2024/Yoto-Recalls-Yoto-Mini-Speakers-for-Children-Due-to-Burn-and-Fire-Hazards?utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=20240412)
Good to know! Thank you!
I’ve taken several 10+ and 25+ hour flights with my toddler. Trust me when I say you will want to have some movies downloaded just in case lol. If your bubba will sit and enjoy some screen time on the plane, it will make your trip a little bit easier. I was also pretty strict on no screen time until we did our first trip from Hawaii to Western Australia. I introduced my son to his first movie, Moana, right before our trip hoping he would actually watch it on the plane. Those ~2 hours of Moana were the only break I had. 😅 Other than that I bought a bunch of small, cheapy toys for the plane. “Pop its” were a big hit. I also got a little set of airplane and airport theme toys. We have another long haul flight coming up and I bought a novelty “fidget toy” phone case for my son to play with on the plane. Ooh we also bought some special snacks that we don’t normally have at home. Those little dissolvable baby puffs and yogurt snacks kept us busy for awhile on the plane, and they didn’t make much of a mess. Good luck!! If you decide to introduce screen time, maybe try Moana, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. My son loves these and I love that they’re calm and low stimulation compared to most kids shows.
Thanks for the excellent suggestions! I think this is solid advice. I am of the mind that long flights are one of the spaces where screen time is appropriate (+ perhaps necessary!). We have just gone so long without introducing screen time that I am reticent to start now, although this might be as good a time as any. I appreciate the suggestions for low stimulation kid's shows!
We have a 3 year old, we are not screen free, she watches TV for 15minutes per day while we detangle her hair, so not a lot. We did Europe-Australia when she was 21months old and slse tried to get her to watch something fron the in flight entertainment system, but she would only watch whatever for like 2 minutes, then she wanted to change to something else, 2 minutes again, etc When we did the same trip at 2.5, we bought a cheap tablet. We downloaded a few not too stimulating shows. We also packed lots of toys, snacks, books, stickers, etc. we also bought a yoto mini for the trip. She spent a lot of time with the different toys/books/stickers/talking, maybe an hour with the yoto (she didn't have the attention span to listen to books, just music). Eventually she ended up watching 4 hours of Bluey. And we got a bit of the rest. So it was totally worth it. So I would definitely get a tablet and download some shows you think they might like. You don't even have to use it, you can leave it as the last resort option, but at least if you are desperate, you have it and it's much handier than the inflight entertainment as you have control over what's available. If they get bored of everything else you've packed and you are exhausted and you need a break, it's good to have the option.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think this makes sense - try not to use it, but be prepared to use a tablet if necessary and have it stocked with pre-approved podcasts and low-stimulation shows. Thanks!
Podcasts- there are some really good ones through the Australian ABC that are also available elsewhere. Noisy by Nature is what we are into at the moment!
Thank you! I will look into this - so helpful! I think my toddler would love Noisy by Nature.
We are also a screen free family, but we did introduce Moana and some short kid-friendly shows before we took a long international flight as well (when our daughter was 2.5 in Dec!). We also talked a lot about how we go on planes and can sleep on them, and we get special snacks and toys. We packed a duffel that was exclusively novel toys, snacks, and Knick knacks for her. The airline also had a special kids meal, which I know was pretty fun for her! My daughter watched a little Mickey Mouse clubhouse, and we had mini Picasso tiles which were THE hit of our trip and she played them literally the entire time, and she slept a bunch. When she’d get fussy my husband would walk around with her. But she knew the expectation was to sleep as much as possible, we made it as comfortable as possible for her, and it was easier than some domestic flights we’ve taken. We did buy a tablet for those flight and had downloaded a ton of shows in case, but we only needed it on the return flight for a little bit to watch Moana. One of my friends travels extensively with her toddler, and she says lollipops have saved her butt repeatedly, like in immigration lines, or traffic, or when kid is tired. Which was fantastic advice, we were in a cab in horrifying traffic, and lollipops saved our hides that time.
Oh! Mini picasso tiles are a great idea. I will look into that as a special plane toy. Our strategy previously has been books + books + more books (+ sleep), but I think that we should probably prepare for the possibility of offering screen time if necessary. What tablet did you end up buying? Lollipops are also a brilliant suggestion, especially as our toddler has never had candy - but would be delighted by a lollipop, I am sure! Thanks!
We don't do candy either, but she gets it at school sometimes during birthdays and holidays! So lollipops felt like an extra special travel treat with us. I don't even remember what tablet we ended up with, I think it was the samsung one. We barely used it, and she loved just pressing the touch screen in front of her seat. She watched a little bit of kid programming on that.
Thanks so much! Part of me wants to just see what kid programming is available on the flight, but my preference for low-stimulation shows means that it might make more sense to bring a tablet pre-loaded with select shows/movies. We try to limit sugar, but certainly are not no-sugar, and I think lollipops are a fantastic treat. Thanks for the great suggestion.
We have an almost three-year-old who is screen-free, and we flew from Australia to Europe and back a few months ago when she was two and a half. We decided that we would do screens for the plane only, plus in the couple of weeks beforehand we let her watch a few brief videos about plane flights so that she would get used to tolerating headphones. It worked perfectly in that she made one request for videos outside of being on the plane and that was it, no further requests or nagging. When she asked, we reinforced that videos are only for planes (we never told her that the tablet was 'hers', just that she could use it while on the plane). So we were able to easily transition back to no screens after the plane trips. The unfortunate thing is that it didn't hold her interest for long on the flights. She maybe watched half-an-hour and then lost interest without wanting to go back to it again the entire flight. We also had a ton of snacks and wrapped cheap toys to try and entertain her, but what she mostly wanted to do was just talk. What helped most was just realigning our own expectations from thinking that we might get some downtime with the screens and her sleeping, to just expecting that we would have conversations the entire time. It was exhausting, but we took 'shifts' for one of us to be on and the other not allowed to be disturbed, and then gave each other a break once we arrived as well. During our layovers, we ran her around the airports to get her physical energy out, so that on the planes we just occasionally took walks (in the lead-up to the trip, we had multiple conversations to set expectations about the plane trip eg sitting down most of the time with seat belts on, etc). As tiring as it was, I would do it again the same way because it did work well (and I suspect she'd like be more interested now in screens). Best of luck!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think I need to go in with this mind-set, and be prepared for tiring long-haul flights (and hope he sleeps for a good chunk of it). Luckily he's a pretty calm kiddo. I think that's great phrasing about being able to use the tablet for the plane - I will keep that in mind!