Top 10 essential items to pack when travelling with kids under 5

If there’s one thing that divides parents from non-parents, it’s how long it takes them to leave the house. You may remember from the time before kids that you would simply grab your phone, purse and keys and then stroll out the door, perhaps stopping to check your hair in the mirror on the way out. For parents, it’s a whole different story. There are way more feet in need of socks and shoes, and those are nearly always destined to go flying off just as everything else falls into place. There are noses to be wiped, bathroom emergencies to be dealt with, and an enormous bag of essentials to be wrestled out of the house.

The same goes for holidays and road trip. These particular outings require nothing short of military precision to pull off, lest you end up halfway down the motorway before realising you haven’t brought any spare vests. A company called Book Mallorca have recently been in touch to share the results of their survey about travelling with kids. They asked 1000 UK parents what is the one thing they wouldn’t live without when travelling with children under the age of five, and the results are really surprising!

Ten years ago, it probably would have been wet wipes – the multi-tasking miracle workers – but these days, parents are more focussed on keeping their little ones entertained with tablet devices. Tablets and iPads topped the list, with snacks coming in at number two and toys taking the number three spot. According to the responses, this could include anything from a treasured teddy bear to the entire toy chest.

Wet wipes appeared next on the list, with 7% of parents choosing these as their essential item. Next up was music, which could be anything from listening to the radio, or leaving their favourite nursery rhyme CDs on repeat. Similar to tablets, but counted as a separate choice, 4.3% of parents said they couldn’t live without their smartphone when travelling. In-car entertainment is clearly an important factor, as almost one-quarter (23%) of those surveyed said they would either need a tablet, smartphone, laptop or DVD player.

3.8% of parents said they couldn’t live without a pram when travelling with their tots, and this was slightly higher with parents of girls, with 4.91% listing this as an essential item. Nappies were also a popular choice, followed by DVD players and finally, juice or water. Parents with girls were more likely to be unsure about their answers, with 12% of those surveyed responding that they weren’t sure what they needed, as opposed to just 3.19% of parents with boys.

Other interesting answers that didn’t make the top ten list include ‘patience’, ‘rest stops’ and ‘coffee’. Can you imagine a road trip without any of these?! It would be quite an interesting experience!

Here’s the top 10 list:

1. Tablet
2. Food
3. Toys
4. Wipes
5. Music
6. Phone
7. Pram
8. Nappies
9. DVD Player
10. Drinks/ Water

What do you think of the top ten list?

Is there anything missing?

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