Toddler tantrums stop parents travelling
New research out today reveals that one in five parents (19 per cent) shun foreign holidays because travelling with their children puts them off booking. 17 per cent of parents admitted that they had never gone on a foreign family holiday because of the stress and worry of travelling with children.
According to the study by Heathrow airport, a third (30 per cent) of parents agreed their children find it hard to sit still for longer than half an hour, and over half (63 per cent) admitted that on previous trips their children started playing up less than an hour into the journey.
Parents top travel concern (with 48 per cent) is their children being ill on the flight closely followed by their children disrupting other passengers (46 per cent). The poll also found that parents worry about their children getting lost in the airport (42 per cent), sibling quarrels (40 per cent) and their children crying throughout the flight (34 per cent). Over a third of parents (38 per cent) worried their parenting skills had been called into question when their children misbehaved on previous trips.
To make families journeys’ as smooth and stress-free as possible this Easter, Heathrow has joined forces with action toy Armouron to create a pre-flight play area in Terminal 5 to give children the opportunity to stretch their limbs and expend some energy prior to getting on the plane.
The toy area will feature Armouron, an innovative suit of action armour encouraging role play –so children can take part in games and activities organised by trained children’s entertainers and childcare specialists.
The energy area will run on Heathrow’s busiest weekend of the holidays from Friday 8th – Sunday 10th April and will feature something for all ages with Tinga Tinga Tales toys, puppet shows, games and more throughout the weekend. Heathrow will also have a day of character costumes on Monday 11th April so that children can meet and greet their heroes including Humungousaur from the world famous Ben 10.
Heathrow flies more people to and from the world’s biggest cities than any other UK airport. During the month of April a staggering 5.7 million people from around the world will be flying through Heathrow.
Nick Cullen, COO of Heathrow said: “For many parents, travelling with children can be an experience fraught with anxiety – especially during the school holidays. This Easter we have created an area where children can enjoy themselves pre-flight and get rid of their energy, and in turn hopefully make the journey a little more manageable for parents.”