Today’s episode is something I wish we weren’t still having to talk about, but unfortunately, I think it’s going to be our reality for a while to come. How do you get your 2, 3 or 4 year old (heck, maybe even your 5 or 6 year old now!) to wear a mask in an airport and on an airplane for hours on end?!?
As we slowlyyyyy crawl out of this COVID-19 pandemic, our children are (thankfully!) needing to wear masks less and less. But that’s also a problem when you go to travel by air where they do still require masks. Our kids are now out of practice, and we’ve had tons of friends ask us how we’re still getting Gage to wear a mask.
Today we’re sharing 5 simple ways to get your toddler to keep their mask on while riding on an airplane. Thankfully we were very successful with Gage because he’s totally our DGAF kid!
Start practicing wayyyy ahead of time
If you’re going in 3 months, start now. We also picked an activity that he really enjoys and doesn’t normally get to do while he practiced wearing his mask. For him, this was his tablet (which we talk all about in this post) and what made it even better is that is typically what he plays with when we travel. It really allowed us to create almost the exact environment that he’d be in when traveling.
Start small
Start out wearing them for 5-10 minutes at most and keep building from there as they tolerate those minutes well. Run quick errands into a store for example. And look, if that small errand needs to be taking them into the grocery store to pick out a treat as a reward for wearing their mask well, do it! But the reality is – they probably need to be able to wear a mask for a minimum of 5-6 hours with very few breaks when traveling by air – that’s a lot to build up to.
Once the mask is on – DISTRACT
With whatever you can – playing silly games, talking about something cool, letting them watch something – whatever.
Let them sit by the window on the plane
They get to look out the window and see all of the cool stuff going on, but you’re also slightly shielded if they decide to revolt against you and not want to wear the mask. It just gives you a little more breathing room to handle this situation without a million eyes looking at you.
Let them eat to take mask breaks
I believe technically the airline policies are to pull your mask down, take a bite and pull it back up while you chew. But honestly, I think if you’re kid is sitting by the window, being quiet and overall doing a great job wearing their mask, no one is going to say anything if they take a snack break! I just don’t think anyone is watching that closely. We always give our kids food and water on the ascent and descent anyway, so you can just strategically plan out additional breaks throughout the flight depending on your total flight time.
I hate that these babies are still having to wear these masks, but I don’t see masks on public transportation going anywhere anytime soon! It’s a catch-22 because they’re not having to wear them as much (which is a good thing), but if you want to take a trip on an airplane with your little one, they’re going to have to wear them for now – and the airports and airlines are very strict about this!
Happy Travels (and practicing!)
DM us on Instagram @messy_wonderful if you have any questions (or perhaps even a fun story to share!)
