Last week, we touched down in Indonesia. Our family is spending the next several months volunteering with a humanitarian organisation in the country’s remote north-east, for what will be Squish’s first cross-cultural adventure.

Add our other recent travel into the mix, and Squish has found herself in three countries in just the last fortnight.

With so many rapid geographical and cultural changes, the learning curve has been steep, both for us as parents and for our 13-month-old daughter.

Here are three tips from our travels so far for navigating cross-cultural travel with your baby.

Snooze on Schedule

The first tip might sound boring or obvious, but it’s essential for everyone’s sanity: maintain normal sleep routines.

When Squish hits the sack at night, her routine is very predictable: bath, books, bottle and bed. We have copied this pattern also for her daytime naps, which has helped make the jet lag transition much easier.

A couple of modern conveniences have also helped give Squish a sense of normality: a sound machine and a black-out tent that goes over her portable cot. Not to mention her other sleep-time staples — namely, her favourite soft toys and her sleep sack.

Everything is changing very rapidly in Squish’s world, but sleep is as familiar as it can possibly be, and we’re all better off as a result.

Find Some Fun

My second tip is to do things your baby enjoys. Many aspects of travel necessarily revolve around things children don’t particularly like — whether being seated or constrained for long periods, sitting around waiting a lot, or getting up early and staying up late.

Then, when families finally arrive at their destination, much of what happens next revolves around the parents, who indeed deserve some time to kick back and relax.

Older children are good at telling parents what they want to do to enjoy themselves. Little babies? Not so much.

As such, we have tried to include time in each day to do things Squish enjoys: visiting new playgrounds, swimming at the beach, or just exploring a new area on foot (since Squish learned to walk a couple of months ago, walking is all she wants to do).

From an adult’s perspective, these activities can sometimes feel tedious or disruptive, but it’s important to remember that your baby is part of the family too, and has separate needs from your own. “Happy wife, happy life” is an accurate proverb in our household — and I am learning the same applies to your baby, especially in the context of cross-cultural travel.

Discover

My third tip is to model cultural curiosity. Don’t make your baby a mere passenger on your travels — involve them as a participant.

Squish has loved discovering new flowers, leaves and animals when we are out walking. She has taken a great interest in the hustle and bustle on Indonesia’s busy streets. She has tried many new foods, just as we have. And with her language proficiency, Squish has even learned a few Indonesian words or abbreviations thereof, including kasih (short for terima kasih, which means “thank you”) and pagi (short for selamat pagi, which means “good morning”).

Spending time chatting with shop owners and introducing them to our baby has been a great way for Squish to put these words into practice and to have a small taste of what life looks like in other parts of the world.

Cross-cultural travel is an enriching experience — and it can be just as enriching for your baby as it is for you.

For those who have travelled abroad with young children, what other tips would you add? Feel free to leave a comment below!

___

Image courtesy of Unsplash.