In the film, About a Boy, Hugh Grant's jobless but wealthy character has the luxury of dividing his time up into 'units'. He goes for 2 hour time slots and fills his days doing relaxed and anodyne stuff. Have leisurely breakfast, one unit. Watch some telly, one unit. Read a magazine, one unit. And so it goes.
And it occurred to me that dividing your time up in this way could be a good way of surviving a long haul flight with our two little ones. Given their ages (almost 1 and almost 3), I am going for 10 minutes as an appropriate 'unit' for their concentration span.
So: have a snack, one unit. Bathroom trip, one unit. Create a pilots cockpit in your seat with stickers from your airport sticker book, one unit (sorry about the stickiness in seat 40G Virgin Atlantic!). Watch a couple of 'Peppa Pig' episodes, one unit. See an airport fire drill out your window while the plane taxis, one AWESOME unit. Sit on tarmac for almost an hour before takeoff because we missed our slot, negative 6 units. (arrghhh!).
I'm happy to report that after about 5 hours of games (scarf in a tin was a surprisingly big hit.... it's in! it's out! it's in again! .... etc. etc.), loads of snacks, an above quota unit of ipad action, and a very loooooooong process of settling (at least 6 units each!) both our boys slept for the final hours of the flight, all the way to the gates at Boston Airport ... a bakers dozen of units.
And it occurred to me that dividing your time up in this way could be a good way of surviving a long haul flight with our two little ones. Given their ages (almost 1 and almost 3), I am going for 10 minutes as an appropriate 'unit' for their concentration span.
So: have a snack, one unit. Bathroom trip, one unit. Create a pilots cockpit in your seat with stickers from your airport sticker book, one unit (sorry about the stickiness in seat 40G Virgin Atlantic!). Watch a couple of 'Peppa Pig' episodes, one unit. See an airport fire drill out your window while the plane taxis, one AWESOME unit. Sit on tarmac for almost an hour before takeoff because we missed our slot, negative 6 units. (arrghhh!).
I'm happy to report that after about 5 hours of games (scarf in a tin was a surprisingly big hit.... it's in! it's out! it's in again! .... etc. etc.), loads of snacks, an above quota unit of ipad action, and a very loooooooong process of settling (at least 6 units each!) both our boys slept for the final hours of the flight, all the way to the gates at Boston Airport ... a bakers dozen of units.
