Secret Mum Club with Sophiena - BONUS: Family Holidays

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

It’s our FIRST EVER Secret Mum Club bonus episode! Each week Sophiena and Emma will be delving into a topic, as chosen by you! This week they are discussing Family Holidays after receiving a message from Danielle who asked for some top tips on travelling with kids. From what to pack, to distraction techniques the ladies have got it covered. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, this is The Secret Mum Club. I'm Safina. I'm Emma. And welcome to our first ever bonus episode. Woohoo! We've got so much to say that one episode a week just wasn't enough. So this bonus episode will be out every single Friday morning, keeping you going until Monday. Emma, what are we going to be talking about? So each week we're going to take a different topic suggested by you, the Secret Mum Club listeners,

and we're just going to chat about it and share our thoughts on that one topic. That's right. It can be on anything from maternity leave to holidays. From teething to school uniforms. So let's get to it. Emma, first topic. What's it going to be? The topic this week is family holidays. Emma, first topic. What's it going to be? The topic this week is family holidays. Ooh, nice.

This one was suggested by Danielle, who asked if we could share any tips for travelling with kids. Don't do it. Save your soul. Stay at home. So we've never travelled on an aeroplane. Have you not? No. We have travelled out long distance places.

On a train. We've been on a train. We've been on a ferry. Yeah. And in car. And in the car, yes. We're mainly car transport. So where have you, how far have you been on a, on?

Car, we've been five and a half hours which it is a lot but i'm always a true believer of just coloring books i'm a pound shop whore like when i go to come christmas time with regards to like getting the baby's presents and stuff like that obviously they get their presents from santa but they also get presents from mummy and daddy so i also i like to do a little stocking yeah and i buy everything from the pound shop whether that be a pound shop toy whether that be a car whether that be coloring book pencils whatever you can find and i basically give myself a budget of 10 pound and i do the same when we travel so i basically give them they've got little drawstring bags that we had made by a little company that are like little travel bags with their names on them and every time we travel i just fill it up with stuff i put a little pack of sweets in there

i put coloring books i put whatever whatever can can fit in the little bag yeah and i basically just give them their little bag and they they just spend their whole time did you find that that got easier as they got older easier to entertain because i feel like littler i would say it was little they were easier literally traveling for toddlers quite hard because nine times out of ten they will fall to sleep yeah you'll get that odd occasion where they are awake if it's the first time on a plane or something like that i feel like there's a sweet spot where like they're really little maybe a little bit older but like the bit in the middle like i think i feel like we're in a bad patch at

the moment yeah 18 months to two a toddler is hard like we went to so we did two flights with him when he was like i'd say four and like six months perfect couldn't walk was still napping all the time doing like contact naps so we could just like hold him and he would sleep um doesn't take up loads of space because when they're under two they don't get their own seat on the plane but basically when your child's nearly two it's like having two full-grown humans in one seat and we went to France in July so when he was like 17 months and I have to say that was a bit of a struggle um just like he wanted to be up and about all the time like we were delayed as well so we wanted to walk around and you're just worried that it's like annoying for other passengers like nothing

will really hold his interest that long for him to be sat there for i'd say like two hours would be a max flight time i don't know how people do like a long haul flight with a baby no you just got to hopefully like time it around naps time it around naps yeah i always found that having them keeping them awake when they were littler and we were traveling i used to take what i take a nap out and keep them awake yeah till we were traveling so that they wouldn't sleep in the car asleep in the car that is the nice thing about like trains and cars and stuff like the motion tablet games i normally i do we do say tablets like knock them out a puritan puritan apparently helps for travel yeah it does because does, because it's travel sickness. Yeah, travel sickness.

Yeah, chills out. But no, the tablet, we download games on the tablet. Yeah, yeah. So then they- Again, I feel like you need to be a bit older for that. Well, I don't know, because you can get the baby games that Joseph can play and the color matching and stuff like that,

and they love it, the noise and stuff like that. Now it's worse, because now they have to have their own tablets. And if I'm in between them, because Chris is driving, I've got to try and play two tablets one in each one with each hand an octopus oh just like a gaddisling just chuck some more Colby does not he doesn't yeah because we brought Joseph headphones for so we did buy an iPad for the flight because we were nervous for going to France that he just would wouldn't take it very well take it very well so we got headphones, absolutely refuses to put them on.

So now what we have is an iPad that we have to play out loud, which is very annoying for other people. But he's more into the visual, so you just turn the volume down really low. Turn it down really little. But I feel like, yeah, iPad and headphones, if they're a certain age, is a winner. Yeah. Favourite TV show. And also, I do encourage the babies to pack their own bags.

Always have done, ever since they were little. Yeah, you pack. Because then I won't be held responsible if you don't like the shit that's in your bag. Yeah. You know, not my fucking problem. You packed it. Like a little trunky.

Yeah. Yeah. Nice. But I feel like less is more. Just go with the focal things like a tablet, some nice engaging toys that they love. Yeah. Teddy.

Teddy's always really good. Yeah. And we had like musleys when they were little. Yeah. My favourite like comforter. Or their favourite comforter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. them of home as well like a teddy or something from home like my mum when we were little in the car used to travel with our pillows so now i travel with the baby's pillows because the comfort from home so when even if they go into a new bed like even if we went abroad my mum would take our pillows in the suitcase wow yeah but then that is dedication but then the kilos were different back then weren't you could have as much as you wanted exactly yeah no one was

checking your luggage but i feel like even if there's something that they like a little a little travel pillow even putting it in their cot before you go away yeah a couple of weeks something familiar something familiar that they've got from in their bed that you can travel with because i think having the comfort from home is yeah a nice feeling when they try to sleep sticker books yep we discovered on our france flight that did keep them entertained for quite a long time very stressful because it doesn't put the stickers actually where they're supposed to go in the line they're not in the line it's very messy but to be honest i was like if you're entertained do whatever you want stick them wherever yeah stick them on me put them on the back of the chair in front of you yeah whatever um fidget

spinners yeah we didn't have them but a few other puppets yeah the poppers yeah a few other children on the flight had them which i was like that's a great great idea a great idea so they're all kind of playing together with those which is and then just snacks yeah lots of snacks loads of snacks you can't really go wrong with snacks no so basically i would book yourself an extra seat an extra suitcase and just take your whole house it's expensive though like god and it's a faff i have to say like getting a flight good you have to like check in the buggy and get a bag for the buggy and but people want to do it and it is it is worth it when you do it it's worth it when you get there for sure it's just the panic of leading up so yeah if you can have like essential things like

i would go for snacks as being one of your essentials something to remind them of home whether that be a pillow or a blanket or something like that like a comforter from home and a little bag of things that can just keep them occupied sticker books coloring books a tablet something like that i feel like that should go to you can't really maybe a mini first aid kit as well go wrong i always pack one what's gonna happen i always take one as well because you never know no you never know and we always travel with a little tiny bottle of cowpoll always cowpoll always yeah yeah joseph's learned to say more cowpoll now love that i feel like is not a good sign but more malpol more malpol more malpol but no we take first aid kit everywhere yeah yes can never be too safe never too sorry

what's the saying do you know can never be too careful oh never be too careful yeah that'll do is that it never be too careful but yeah i i think that was mean, sometimes, like I'm joking saying don't do it. It's not worth it. But sometimes you have to. You have to. You can't. It can't be avoided. Like our in-laws live five and a half, six hours away in the car.

We have to, annoyingly, we have to go and see them. So you're just like, okay, buckle in. This is going to be a long journey on the motorway. You do have to do it. And a holiday is good. And I feel like I've, where we've not been on a plane yet, I feel like I've cut my nose off because it's going to be hell. No, because it will be exciting for them now.

No. It will be a new experience. Not now, I've chucked them on Go Ape and on every roller coaster at Poulton's Park, they're like, fuck this, fuck you. But you don't like flying, do you? Well, I used to love it when I was younger. What happened? Yeah, just things happened on the news, didn't they?

Yeah. It just wasn't. Put you off. And where I with ptsd really bad i had a really bad accident when i was younger about 10 11 um which was around the same time as all of that it just gave me the absolute fear of god so do you think you ever will do it i have to i'm gonna have to suck it up. I am going to be like Lee Evans, you know, when he takes all them tablets and he gets to the thing. The fly's delayed. What? That'll be me.

I'll be struggling to stay awake. You'll be out of it. Yeah, yeah. Chris will be with the kids. He'll be fine. Going to be fine. They'll still leave me in Gatwick. Where's mum?

She's in Gatwick. Fucking, they were too scared to put her on the plane. She's in the lounge having all the free Prosecco. Going to have to do it one day. Yeah, because I suppose you don't want them to be scared of it as well. And I want them to see the world. Yeah. I do want them to see the world.

I mean, there's places you can go without going on a plane. I know. But not that far. Do you know how many times I actually Google where I can get to in a car? Yeah. And how long it'll take me. We can drive to Spain in good time. Yeah.

France, Spain. Bruges. Belgium, yeah. Brussels. Is it Brussels? They're all in Belgium, yeah. Oh. Yep.

Well, I hope that was helpful. I hope that was helpful. And didn't put you off, Danielle. I reckon you should just do it. Yeah. It'll be so worth it. It's always worth it when you get there. And making the new memories is lovely.

Priceless. And to be fair, even if they are bad memories, they're still memories. Exactly. That you will look back on one day and just piss yourself yeah like i was on the train this morning talked about my sister the time we recorded a do you remember that show this is your life yeah this is your life we made one for my mum on a home video did you and we've done this is your life for my mum and we had like a little red book we did one for my granddad as well.

Stop. I'd love someone to do that for me. Family members. Bring that show back. So I feel like as cringy or as hard as whatever it is, a memory is a memory. Yeah. Go for it. Do it.

So there you go. That's our first bonus episode. I loved it. Should we do it again next week? Absolutely. And we want you to suggest your topics for us to talk about yeah they can be on anything you can email us hello at secret mom pod.com or we're secret mom pod on tiktok and instagram and we'll be back first thing on monday with the main episode and our new bonus episode

will be out every friday morning to keep you going through the weekend and it's only 15 minutes what can you do in 15 minutes so a lot of things to run a mile you run a mile in 15 minutes 13 13 minutes 14 so you could run a mile in a bit yes i could so look out for that guys anyway we'll see you next time on the secret mom club