great experience traveling alone with toddler and infant

[divea]

Breast feeding worked like a charm for my little girl but my son just slept peacefully through all the landings and take off......I guess sleep helps too.

[Brian]

I find babies the easiest to travel with. They are not looking for much excitement so don't get bored easily. They sleep alot, drink a lot and enjoy being in parents arms.

Not like toddlers who are too young to read to themsleves, can't watch tv for long and cannot stay in their seat for more than 30mins. They require lots of entertainment and planning so I find babies are much travellers!

Yeah...huge difference between flying the twins to LA between 6mos and 2 years old. The last time I jokingly walked around the waiting area saying "I'd like to apologize in advance for any discomfort caused by my kids during the flight." (they were running around the airport screaming "Airplane! Zoom!" at the time)

Next time will be Christmas/NY and they'll be almost-4.

[Susanne]

4 is easy again, at least that's what I think. Traveling with my son is no problem at all, it is my daughter who is a bit challenging on the airplane now.
I agree, babies are easy (but of course a first time mom will be stressed, because it's her first time with a baby on a plane), toddlers are hard, and once they are old enough to read, watch TV, entertain themselves for a longer period of time and understand more it's easier again.

[Adam]

We are flying to N.Y. in Aug. Katherine will be 5 and Victor 6 months. Our last trip to N.Y. (Victor wasn't born yet) went pretty well. Katherine was almost 4. I had some videos for her and craft activities.
I am pretty worried about this trip though. It is so far and with two. And Victor is a screamer. I hope nobody tries to kick us off the airplane.

[scomargo]

It looks like I will take my twins on a trip to the US by myself this Christmas. They'll be about 4 years old. I'm looking forward to the vacation, but not the flights.

How do you go about requesting assistance at the airport? The only time I'm really concerned about is when I first land in the US, then have to clear immigration, get my bags, clear customs, put the bags back, and then walk to our connecting flight. I'm assuming I should just ask the airline for assistance during that time?

Also, if I'm traveling without my Taiwanese spouse, what kind of documents, if any, do I need to show so that I will be able to take my Taiwanese citizen children out of the country with me (I'm American, and not Taiwanese)?

Thank you for any tips you can share.

[ancaoyang]

Do they (your children) have both TW and USA passports? My 3yrs old daughter has TW and USA passports. When go to America I show her USA passport, when back in Taiwan I show her TW passport. If no USA passport and going to America, immigration official might ask to see your children's visas to enter the US.

[Just Jennifer]

Also, if I'm traveling without my Taiwanese spouse, what kind of documents, if any, do I need to show so that I will be able to take my Taiwanese citizen children out of the country with me (I'm American, and not Taiwanese)?

Oh boy, this reminds me of my last trip home with my 3 younger kids.

Be sure to bring your TW household registration to show that you are their father and I'm sure you always carry your ARC on you.

Just for laughs I'll tell you what happened with us: my husband brought the children and me to the airport. With Continental we'd always rec'd excellent and personalized service whenever my eldest traveled as an unaccompanied minor.

This time we were flying with another carrier and they said they could not let the children board the plane unless we showed them proof that I was their mother. Never mind that my husband was there saying he's their father, they have his permission to board the plane, I'm his wife and I have his permission to take them with me, and my kids are calling me mommy and happy and smiling, including one nursling. (Do they not look at all like me???)

Seriously now, I'm curious to know if anyone has ever had that problem here????

My husband had to race home to find the family registry then get to a fax machine so he could fax it to China Air. The plane was leaving at midnight or 12:05 and about 5 minutes to take off the counter staff told us my husband couldn't get our documents faxed in time but we needed to get to the gate as quickly as possible and the fax would be sent to Guam.

Thankfully, my kids were really happy and well behaved with absolutely no bickering(!) the whole time we were waiting (at least two hours including the time spent checking in) so when it was time to get to the gate I asked the big kids to run while I followed with the youngest in the stroller. It was wild!!

Don't forget your Taiwan family registry just in case...

[scomargo]

Also, if I'm traveling without my Taiwanese spouse, what kind of documents, if any, do I need to show so that I will be able to take my Taiwanese citizen children out of the country with me (I'm American, and not Taiwanese)?

Be sure to bring your TW household registration to show that you are their father and I'm sure you always carry your ARC on you.

Thank you Jennifer, this is very helpful. The children do have both TW and USA passports, and my surname is listed on each of their passports. Also, I can take a copy of our household registration where I know I am listed as my wife's spouse (and presumably as my children's father).

So if I have my ARC and a copy of the household registration, there shouldn't be any other problem? I was imagining some situation where the immigration checkpoint won't let me through because they're afraid I'm kidnapping the children from their Taiwanese mother. I guess I'm being overly paranoid, unless somebody else has had this experience. Worst case, hopefully a phone call to my wife would clear things up?

Judging by the lack of responses, I guess most people don't have a big problem with this, but I'll take my documents just in case.

[angie]

We do the same when travelling, exit on Taiwan passports enter on Canadian passports. Only once someone at Canadian immigration asked me if I had a notorized letter of permission from my husband to bring the kids out of Taiwan to prove I was not kidnapping them. I said I did not but surely lots of families travel with just one parent. Immagration replied that since the kids all had Canadian passports they could not be refused entry into Canada but if they had not we would be haassled and perhaps turned away.

[ciza]

Hi chinchin...

I just flew to Taiwan from California with a 6 week old. The doctors told us that the baby just needs to be at least a month and get his first set of vaccinations...so we did that in California.

What worked best on the plane was, having him latched on at takeoff and landing and since our flight was an overnight flight, the baby was asleep most of the time. I also carried my breast pump with me in case I had to pump on the plane and once I did pump. Instead of going to the bathroom to pump, I had a pump that functioned with batteries, so I just put batteries in it and pumped under the nursing wrap. Also, we got the seats with the bassinet, so I could put him in his swaddle blanket (swaddle me) and put him in the bassinet and fed him every 3 hours. My lactation consultant told me that the breast works better than the bottle at take-off and landing in relieving pressure-change.

FYI, when you land in Taiwan, you don't have to wait in the long immigration line, all you have to do is go to the line that allows parents with children, pregnant women, elderly people etc...and it should be a lot faster.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Good-Luck...

[Juneplum]

Hi chinchin...

I just flew to Taiwan from California with a 6 week old. The doctors told us that the baby just needs to be at least a month and get his first set of vaccinations...so we did that in California.

FYI, when you land in Taiwan, you don't have to wait in the long immigration line, all you have to do is go to the line that allows parents with children, pregnant women, elderly people etc...and it should be a lot faster.

Thank you for putting this post. I am planning to prepare for a flight to Taipei with our new baby who will be about 8-10 weeks, from Toronto via Hong Kong. Of course, once all is well with our baby and I, and we get the green light from our doctor, we intend to reunite our family. It is the rest of my family where everyone has an opinion about flying with young babies.

Speaking of vaccinations, when we get to Taipei and get a doctor there for our baby, how easy is it to continue the course of vaccinations?