Tots to Teens: Making travelling with young kids bearable this season
Pic: Alamy/PA
Travelling with young children over the holidays can be stressful.
Here are three tips from the AA to make Christmas trips more bearable.
Get your game face on. Be armed with lots of games you and the kids can play during the journey. If you have an adult passenger or older child, make them the games master of the car. Spotting yellow cars or vans is a classic car game and a few sweets as prizes will help keep them interested.
Prepare a Christmas playlist for the car. Start the party early with a Christmas playlist on Spotify. Get it set up in advance and leave any changes to your passengers.
3. Plan breaks in your journey. Drivers should take a break every two hours. Plan these ahead and make the break more fun for the kids by stopping off the motorway at a garden centre or park where the children can burn off some energy.
If you’re looking for a free daytime activity that the whole family can enjoy this festive season, Wanderly Christmas might be just the thing for you.
It’s a digital treasure trail that takes you through Killarney Town and National Park. It starts with downloading an app from christmasinkillarney.com/wanderful, which installs a map of the 3.5k route on your phone. Because the route has been designed to get the entire family outdoors and active over Christmas, it’s fully accessible to all, even those with buggies.
As you follow the route, you will find markers with details on how to scan them on your phone. When you do so, Christmas characters will dance across your phone screen, allowing you to interact and take photos with them.
The app saves your progress so you can complete the trail all in one go or return to complete it another day.
When you finally arrive at the finish line, you will receive a special Elf certificate congratulating you on a fun family day out.
There may be occasions this Christmas when your child receives a gift they don’t particularly like. As a parent, you might worry about their response in this situation. Will they be gracious about it and thank the giver for thinking of them, or will they come across as being spoilt, ungrateful or rude?
For answers to your questions, check out British psychologist Dr Martha Deiros Collado's Instagram account, @dr.martha.psychologist
The mum of two specialises in parenting, child development, and family therapy.
She tackles big subjects such as death, sex, gender and how to talk about current affairs calmly and empathetically. She also discusses small everyday challenges, such as getting children to eat their vegetables and brush their teeth.
And as for making sure your kids are grateful? Her tip is to role-model the behaviour you’d like them to emulate. Thank others on their behalf. Demonstrate gratitude to them when they give you something or do something nice for you. And give them a break. They’re still learning.
If you’ve got a young sports lover on your hands, you’re guaranteed to put a smile on their face by presenting them with on Christmas morning.
This large-format book is written by RTÉ sports journalist Evanne Ní Chuilinn and illustrated by Donough O’Malley. Their passion and knowledge shine through in the form of facts and stories about all of our Gaelic games. It’s not just football and hurling covered here — camogie, handball, and rounders feature too.
The book also explains what goes on behind the scenes on match day, attempts to answer the question about which county has the zaniest fans and introduces readers to some of the talented Gaelic games players who have brought joy over the years.
The recommended retail price is €24.99
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