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Kiddie question's

Kiddie question's

Old Oct 6th 2007, 1:28 pm
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Ok so the kids obviously have been told that daddy has a job in Melbourne (well hopefully) they know about the visa's and we try to explain things as clearly as possible.
A little concerning and the reason for the post is not once have they seemes upset about moving?
They are very close to my dad, who they see several times a week, they are close to my mum who they see about every other week, they are very close to Martin's parents who they see every month or so. They have their friends etc

Is it just me that thinks the kids really DON'Tfully understand the implications of what we'll be doing????
It's not that I want them to be hugely devastated or anything but i'd rather they realised now than during a horrendous 24 hr flight or when we are trying to settle them in.

Is it too much to expect them to understand at the age of 9 and 7?

Anyone with kids of a similar age if you could give soem advice i'd appreciate it

Jen
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 1:43 pm
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Ok second question

Small child (well not really) whose 2 yrs old (is the height of a 3 yr old)
currently has communication difficulties (doesn't seem to be related to any disorders), he gets easily frustrated, he doesn't like to sit still for any length of time an trying to force that particular issue just seems to make him like an incensed wild feral child.

We thougth we'd take the kids to Paris and do Disney in March partly to see what he was like on a flight, what a nightmare, wasn't too bad going as it was morning when we flew but on the way home it was late afternoon flight and i've been on several flights and never seen another child go as ballistic as my little one did. Screaming, crying, 10 minutes after take off he'd already got so distressed that he was throwing up and did so about a dozen times in the space of 45 minutes. and then threw up another few times between getting off the plane and getting back to the car.

I've been told to try phenagen (not sure how you spell it), I'm thinking of going to see the dr to see if we can have some to try with him as i've heard it can make children sleepy or hyper.

Is there anything else that can be done? He's such a physically active child and I know there will be some who say he'll probably be ok but judging by the flight earlier in the year and the fact that even now he doesn't like being stopped from running off or restrained if he has it in his head he wants to go somewhere.

I'm hoping we will be allowed to take his car seat onto the plane as this will help a little as for short periods he behaves well whiel restrained in it, however anything longer than a 2 - 3 hour car journey if he isn't sleepy turns into a screaming nightmare.

The more attention you give him when he's like that the worse he gets and the thought of 24 hours of it well even if it was only 6 hours actually makes me feel quite ill.
So any advice on wether anyone else's child was the same and wether the dr's can give you something guarunteed to make them sleep?
Can you take the car seat on?
I had heard you could only do this if you were seated in bulk head seats?

Jen
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 1:43 pm
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Default Re: Kiddie question's

Hi Jen,
My 2 are 10 and 4 and I can honestly say I don't think they fully realised until they were here in OZ! When you tell them its a big adventure and all exciting for them, unfortunately its not until a few weeks after being here that they (well mine) realised that it wasn't a holiday and it was for good. Youngest blurted out today totally randomly whilst putting washing away that she misses her friends bless

Oldest was fine for first month then started to miss his friends and family and life back in the UK terribly. It's now been just over 3 months and he's now made so many new friends I can't keep up lol.. He is back to having sleep overs and playing out most days and evenings which is what he is used to, although here they swimm at home instead of playing footy! I would say it is normal for them to just take it in their stride, just be prepared once you land that they may find it harder, but it will pass! Some days when Ethan was upset I thought my heart would break.

However the other day in the car after his cricket practise he asked if he could play cricket every year! I said so does that mean your gona stay in Oz and he just laughed and said I guess so, it is hard for them at first, but they adapt very quickly.

Good Luck with it all
Axx

Where did Q2 appear from then!!! Try to get a night time flight and keep him awake all day, then give him something to make him drowsy, you could always do a 1 or 2 night stop over just to break it into smaller journeys for him, personally my 2 werefine and we came straight through without a stopover but they have always been good travellers, we just made sure we had enough to entertain them, books, pens, PSP's, etc..etc.. Good Luck you'll be fine

Last edited by acbh2; Oct 6th 2007 at 1:48 pm.
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 1:46 pm
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What do you tell your kids about the errrm wildlife out there?
You know the not so nice spiders, snakes etc

?


Thanks abch2
I'm dreadign the realisation bits. As most ppl realise i've had my happy looking forward to it moments then there has been lots of tears and worry for the last nearly 18months but i'm pleased to say although I know there'll be a few tears when I get there I know that i've doen most of my crying and worrying here.

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Old Oct 6th 2007, 1:52 pm
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Default Re: Kiddie question's

I never mentioned them before we came, as I didn't want my 2 freaking out and decided they hated Oz before they had even got here lol. They know to be careful and not to walk in bushes and to check shoes before putting them on. We were in the local park the other day and there was a brown snake (apparantly harmful according to the locals) and they weren't scared just curious! Came for a look then went back to playing
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 2:50 pm
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Default Re: Kiddie question's

Hi Jen, first flight we took our to little ones on was to Oz at easter this year. I( 2 and 4) I wrapped loads of little pressies to be bought out during the flight to keep them occupied. Seat back tellies where a god send and there was a really good choice of kiddies tv and films. I think even kids get in to a long flight mind set. As for car seats you'll have to contact the airline to check yours is suitable. Word of warning about bulk head seats you cant raise the arm rests like you can on other seats, we found our little one ( now 3 and the size of a 4 year old!) was more comfortable laying with his head on my lap across the seat.

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Old Oct 6th 2007, 4:17 pm
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Default Re: Kiddie question's

Hi Jen,

We are moving to Cairns in January and our kids re 7,8 and 9. They are very aware that they are going for good, and are really excited. They only have their grandmother here and are trying to spend as much time with her as possible before we leave. We have made sure to include them in every step of the planning, so they feel part of the process of moving. We have googled schools, sports clubs, tuckshop menus, cost of bikes, soccer boots and everything else and spent hours on google earth checking out Cairns and surrounds. Any question they have, I just say 'go goggle it'. Seems to be doing the trick and they all feel part of the decision we have made to move back.

Our eldest guy has said he will miss his friends, but has also said that he knows he will meet new ones too. Kids this age are at lot more street wise than I ever was at that age (and probably still am, so do try and give them credit for understanding everything that is going on. If you are both very positive about the whole move, the kids will be too.

Re the flight, the older ones will be fine. If you take a night flight they will probably sleep for half of it anyway. I flew home to Tasmania when the boys were 1 and 2 and I was 6 months pregnant, by myself. It took a total of 40 hours door to door, with no sleep for me Now that was tough - I think I am still recovering from it. Be sure to take lots of little toys, wrapped in lots of layers of paper for your little one. Every few minutes spent trying to get the paper off, is a few more minutes you dont have to do the entertaining!

I wouldn't recommend any drugs for the kids, but that is just my personal opinion. Because they then have to deal with the after effects of the drugs as well as jet lag, new surroundings, the heat etc etc. Just try to make the flight part of the whole adventure, and if it really seems impossible for you and the kids, break it up by stopping over.

Oh, having grown up with spiders and all things creepy crawly I think it is crucial that the kids know in advance what they may come across - for their own safety. So again, google came to the rescue. (Also took a trip to Dublin zoo to show them that Ireland has creepy crawlies too!) I have also made a point of not getting freaked at the few spiders we do have wandering around our house and garden right now. They seem very relaxed about it all now.

It is a great adventure we are all about to embark on

Hope this helps.
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 7:05 pm
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Originally Posted by black cat
Hi Jen, first flight we took our to little ones on was to Oz at easter this year. I( 2 and 4) I wrapped loads of little pressies to be bought out during the flight to keep them occupied. Seat back tellies where a god send and there was a really good choice of kiddies tv and films. I think even kids get in to a long flight mind set. As for car seats you'll have to contact the airline to check yours is suitable. Word of warning about bulk head seats you cant raise the arm rests like you can on other seats, we found our little one ( now 3 and the size of a 4 year old!) was more comfortable laying with his head on my lap across the seat.
I know it sounds bizarre but i'm already thinking about what sort of things he likes that can be fitted in to his hand luggage to play with on the plane, as we have found out recently unless they are going to start playing Thomas the tank Engine on the tv he really isn't too insterested in very much else, he's like a Thomas the tank engine addict.

Can you take portable dvd players on the flight? we dont have one but i'm thinking it might be worth it if we can.
But I think if it was even a 6 - 9 hour flight I probably wouldn't be asking this question.
I'm quite confident that he will at some point succum to distraction but I don't think it would last long no matter if we packed all his toys onto the plane. What really makes it worse is he's not overly keen on strangers and the fact that we'll be on a plane full of them is just going to be fantastic NOT.

Don't get me wrong drugging him isn't really something we want to do but I would feel much better knowing full well what he can be like if we had something with us for him incase we do need it, and it'll only happen if we start to feel suicidal from hours worth of screaming and priorto us getting mobbed by ALL the other passengers on the plane.
Until we went to Paris it wasn't even some thing I had really considered. My other two are no problem at all, they've done Paris twice first time was when they were about 3 and 1 and I couldn't fault them at all, been to America and were fantastic on all the flights, never whinged, slept when they could, and they were only 7 and 5 then.
I know although it's a much longer flight my older two will be fine, no problem at all. BUT my little man is completely different, the fact that we'll be in a confined space with lots of strangers, he won't be able to run around and play in the 'room' on and off the chairs, he won't have his 'space' when it's bedtime it won't be very dark and it won't be particularly quiet. It's worse than going to a relatives that lives in a small flat with lots of things that he 'MUST NOT' touch and filled with lots of ppl he's never met.
I know i'm making him out to be a nightmare and he isn't like this all the time but basically all the scenario's he HATES he's going to have to deal with at once for a very long period of time, and when he hates something he'll throw himself about, he'll scream, he'll cry to the point he makes himself very ill and the fact he's going through 'terrible two's' on top of his behaviour issues to do with his lack of speech just tops it all off wonderfully.
An yes we are trying to get him used to as much as we can but lets put it this way we've had no success whatsoever.

Do I sound panicky??????????? Yeah thats cause I am.

Hubby's even talking about me flying out with the other two and him following with little man on the next flight, though the screaming an dbeing ill gets to me quicker by the end of the flight back from Paris I thought hubby was going to committ GBH on some of the other passengers that were slating our little one and interfering which was making him worse.

There will be NO easy way round this. I'm just hoping that with enough speech therapy before we go we'll be able to keep him occupied with conversation and that this will build his confidence so strangers aren't so scarey for him.

We really don't want a stop over as if the kids don't sleep well on the stop over we'll be in an even worse state by the time we arrive in Melbourne.

Phewww and breath .......................................
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 7:22 pm
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Default Re: Kiddie question's

Originally Posted by JenJen
I know it sounds bizarre but i'm already thinking about what sort of things he likes that can be fitted in to his hand luggage to play with on the plane, as we have found out recently unless they are going to start playing Thomas the tank Engine on the tv he really isn't too insterested in very much else, he's like a Thomas the tank engine addict.

Can you take portable dvd players on the flight? we dont have one but i'm thinking it might be worth it if we can.
But I think if it was even a 6 - 9 hour flight I probably wouldn't be asking this question.
I'm quite confident that he will at some point succum to distraction but I don't think it would last long no matter if we packed all his toys onto the plane. What really makes it worse is he's not overly keen on strangers and the fact that we'll be on a plane full of them is just going to be fantastic NOT.

Don't get me wrong drugging him isn't really something we want to do but I would feel much better knowing full well what he can be like if we had something with us for him incase we do need it, and it'll only happen if we start to feel suicidal from hours worth of screaming and priorto us getting mobbed by ALL the other passengers on the plane.
Until we went to Paris it wasn't even some thing I had really considered. My other two are no problem at all, they've done Paris twice first time was when they were about 3 and 1 and I couldn't fault them at all, been to America and were fantastic on all the flights, never whinged, slept when they could, and they were only 7 and 5 then.
I know although it's a much longer flight my older two will be fine, no problem at all. BUT my little man is completely different, the fact that we'll be in a confined space with lots of strangers, he won't be able to run around and play in the 'room' on and off the chairs, he won't have his 'space' when it's bedtime it won't be very dark and it won't be particularly quiet. It's worse than going to a relatives that lives in a small flat with lots of things that he 'MUST NOT' touch and filled with lots of ppl he's never met.
I know i'm making him out to be a nightmare and he isn't like this all the time but basically all the scenario's he HATES he's going to have to deal with at once for a very long period of time, and when he hates something he'll throw himself about, he'll scream, he'll cry to the point he makes himself very ill and the fact he's going through 'terrible two's' on top of his behaviour issues to do with his lack of speech just tops it all off wonderfully.
An yes we are trying to get him used to as much as we can but lets put it this way we've had no success whatsoever.

Do I sound panicky??????????? Yeah thats cause I am.

Hubby's even talking about me flying out with the other two and him following with little man on the next flight, though the screaming an dbeing ill gets to me quicker by the end of the flight back from Paris I thought hubby was going to committ GBH on some of the other passengers that were slating our little one and interfering which was making him worse.

There will be NO easy way round this. I'm just hoping that with enough speech therapy before we go we'll be able to keep him occupied with conversation and that this will build his confidence so strangers aren't so scarey for him.

We really don't want a stop over as if the kids don't sleep well on the stop over we'll be in an even worse state by the time we arrive in Melbourne.

Phewww and breath .......................................
It might be worth considering an evening/ night flight in the hope that once you have taken off he'll go straight to sleep, so you at least get the first leg with a bit of peace and quiet. Best advice someone gave me was you'll never see anyone on the flight again, so do whats best for your little boy and you and dont worry about anyone else!
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 7:34 pm
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Originally Posted by black cat
It might be worth considering an evening/ night flight in the hope that once you have taken off he'll go straight to sleep, so you at least get the first leg with a bit of peace and quiet. Best advice someone gave me was you'll never see anyone on the flight again, so do whats best for your little boy and you and dont worry about anyone else!
We thought most of the flights to Melbourne were night flights? Which would be perfect for my eldest 2.
I know it sounds strange but I was actually thinking it might be better for him if we could get a morning flight, He's much less arsey in the morning and more acceptign of err new situations.
Although we're trying to get him out of his strict routines he has tea, has his milk plays for a while or watches tv til bathtime then after his bath he goes to bed, the night flights would mean we would need to keep him up until we board the flight at about 9 - 9:30pm and then he may sleep for a few hours but he'd prob be awake for the majority of the rest of the flight.

Whereas if we caught a day flight ok he'd be awake for the first few hours might have a nap and then awake again but would hopefully get a good sleep in just before we get to singapore and maybe another short nap.

With all the technology about you'd think they could invent a bloody portal that you walk through and can be over the other side of the planet ina matter of a few minutes loll



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Old Oct 6th 2007, 7:41 pm
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Default Re: Kiddie question's

Originally Posted by JenJen
We thought most of the flights to Melbourne were night flights? Which would be perfect for my eldest 2.
I know it sounds strange but I was actually thinking it might be better for him if we could get a morning flight, He's much less arsey in the morning and more acceptign of err new situations.
Although we're trying to get him out of his strict routines he has tea, has his milk plays for a while or watches tv til bathtime then after his bath he goes to bed, the night flights would mean we would need to keep him up until we board the flight at about 9 - 9:30pm and then he may sleep for a few hours but he'd prob be awake for the majority of the rest of the flight.

Whereas if we caught a day flight ok he'd be awake for the first few hours might have a nap and then awake again but would hopefully get a good sleep in just before we get to singapore and maybe another short nap.

With all the technology about you'd think they could invent a bloody portal that you walk through and can be over the other side of the planet ina matter of a few minutes loll



Jen
I wish I get dreadful motion sickness, strangely always worse on night flights! Another thought on the big jumbos if you go to the back of the plane you have a row of 3 seats and then a row of 2. Perhaps if you managed to prebook these your son could sit by the window with you or your oh on the isle to make sure hes not to bothered by the other passengers. (If you dont want to be bothered by stewardess's fly BA!!!)
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 8:05 pm
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Originally Posted by black cat
I wish I get dreadful motion sickness, strangely always worse on night flights! Another thought on the big jumbos if you go to the back of the plane you have a row of 3 seats and then a row of 2. Perhaps if you managed to prebook these your son could sit by the window with you or your oh on the isle to make sure hes not to bothered by the other passengers. (If you dont want to be bothered by stewardess's fly BA!!!)
LMAO you and me both, when hubby and me took a trip out to Melbourne last March I was ill from 2 hours into the flight and this went on for about 5 hours, funnily enouh we flew out with BA and most of the stewardesses were a pain in the arse to be honest.
We went through horrendous turbulance and I ran a few rows to the back of the plane to throw up in the loo and i'd barely started and they were pounding on the bloody door for me to go back to my seat, i told her well i'm sorry but i'm a bit busy spewign my guts up right now. I had two more different hostesses come and bang on the door and by that point I was gettign really quite arsey with them and told the last one - look i'll coem out when I can if you want me to come out now and risk me throwing up all over you then thats fine but you have been warned and you'll have to clear up the mess. They left me alone after that. Nearly half hour passed by and I emerged to a very patient hostess that had sat there waiting for me to come out and said could she get me anything? how was I feeling - err still really ill. She said worse palce you can be if you get air sick is the back of the plane as the turbulence is much worse.
So she took me up to the middle of the plane sat me down and I spent over an hour chatting to her while the majority of passengers were still asleep. Had to sign a form to allow her to give me some anti sickness tablets.

I'm defiantely going to be taking anti sickness tablets with me next time lolll
you have a point about being at the back, he'll probable get bothered less, all of them will be close for the toilets hell i'll bloody try anything if it means I have my sanity intact when we get to Melbourne.

lol

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Old Oct 6th 2007, 8:29 pm
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Look kinda like butter wouldn't melt doesn't he loll
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Old Oct 6th 2007, 10:17 pm
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He's lovely. This is my "little" man on Avoca beach this easter. Isnt it amazing how angelic they can look!
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Old Oct 7th 2007, 11:48 am
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Originally Posted by black cat
He's lovely. This is my "little" man on Avoca beach this easter. Isnt it amazing how angelic they can look!
How did you get him to sit still without any restraint ?????
Notice mine is in a highchair lollll
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