Travel doesn't have to be sick

It is like the inner circle of hell. Heathrow Airport at the beginning of the summer holidays. Made worse by the presence of children. Everywhere. Crying, fighting over luggage trolleys, kicking you in the back of the leg, demanding food, refusing food, and letting us all know how bored they are. You are worried about important, adult things such as duty free booze. They are worried about silly things such as Lego watches. On the plane, things are no better, since you can add travel sickness into the mix.

But does it always have to be like this? My husband and I recently took our four children aged 12, nine, six and four on a four-month long journey around the world. By the end they had evolved from yelling, vomiting horrors into calm, relaxed travellers. How?

1. Hand luggage - preferably a Trunkie - is best because when one of your children throws up, or spills a Coke all over himself in Terminal Five, you simply open up the case and get out some fresh clothes.

2. Pack light. Nobody needs to take every single piece of clothing they have ever owned. Our children took just five pairs of knickers, two T-shirts, two trousers/shorts and a jumper/cagoule combo, not a coat. Each.

3. A drawstring school sports bag is perfect for dirty stuff.

4. Travel wash and a thin travel washing line. For the above.

5. Paper toys. Bleeping gadgets cause arguments and infuriate other passengers. Also they can be stolen. Give each of your children a pad of paper and a set of pens. Then resign yourself to hours of hangman, battleships etc. We also took origami, a paper farmyard, paper dinosaurs and a sheet of tracing paper with some BluTack. If you get a window seat draw on the tracing paper and stick it onto the window for a stained-glass effect. When you are finished, you can chuck it away.

6. As a lifelong car vomiter, I can testify that a pair of nylon anti-sickness wrist bands will banish the spectre of travel sickness. Cheap, reusable and they work.

7. Befriend fizzy drinks. If your plane is delayed, keep your children buzzing in the airport by judicious doses of Coke. You want them to conk out in the air, not on the ground.

8. A familiar friend. One small soft toy or if they have one, their own blanket. They dispel homesickness, encourage sleep and double up as a towel.

9. No books. A softback atlas (for capital city quizzes) and an anthology of funny poems is better. We made it around the world without going mad thanks to a Michael Rosen anthology. Children will be quite happy being read the same thing again and again. Which brings me to the last point.

10. Parental involvement. Don't disappear behind the pages of a newspaper. If you can regard the flight as a special time with your children, so much the better. You'll find it a lot less frustrating, and discover that your children are rather fun travel companions. Then when they drift off, bring out that book of Fiendish Sudoko, and relax.