Travelling with children can be stressful enough with all that extra packing you need to do, not to mention the inevitable series of toilet breaks and the gradual onset of boredom that often comes with trips away. So, when you add in the extra stress that comes with keeping your children safe on holiday, family trips away begin to look less appealing. We love anything that helps us keep them safe a little bit easier, and child ID safety bands are the answer.
By keeping your children safe on holiday, we’re talking about not losing them, often a difficult task if you’re travelling with over-excited, sugar-filled youngsters. Airports become playgrounds, cruise ships become adventure-lands and there’s no stopping them on long esplanades where there’s plenty of space to run. So it’s clear that where you go on holiday has a real impact on how relaxed you are as a parent. Navigating public events, visiting crowded beaches and even strolling through shopping malls are outings that come fraught with danger. And it’s tiring work too – keeping your children safe means constantly knowing where they are and what they’re doing.
We’re parents too, here at Candidtraveller, and we’ll admit that we’ve taken some unusual precautions to make sure we can always see our kids when we’re on holiday. Many of our ideas haven’t been met with enthusiasm from the youngest members of our families. They’ve been subjected to wearing the most unfashionable clothing available, because flower print neon T-shirts can be spotted a mile off! We’ve tied helium balloons to their backpacks as a visual aid, and even slung whistles around their necks (although these were quickly removed when they became little more than annoying toys). But no matter how much care you take, kids are fast little things. If they decide to wander off not even the most watchful parent can spot them every time.
So what do you do if the unthinkable happens and your child disappears into the thronging crowds at a packed theme park? Apart from shout and scream, cry a lot, and generally feel utterly miserable until they’re found again? The problem we face is that small children don’t know how to find us. Very often, they don’t remember our phone numbers, and if a stranger asks them what their parents are called so they can make a tannoy announcement, ‘mummy and daddy’ isn’t the most helpful answer. But we’ve cracked it with a discovery that last year – as we went to one crowded sporting event after another – helped allay all our fears.
A search on the internet brought up this fabulous little company (www.theidbandco.com) who sell ID wrist bands for kids (as well as adults and a whole lot more). Cue a little panic buying on our part, and before you knew it our kids were sporting brightly coloured wrist bands with a list of contact information inside. It may not be the same as tying our wayward children to a long piece of string, but these bands certainly give us confidence that if they do manage to give us the slip in busy places, a simple wave of their wrists at any respectable adult will have our phones ringing in no time. Sure, they won’t stop determined children getting lost in the first place, but that little bit more peace of mind makes it easier for paranoid parents to relax.
We love these Child ID Safety Bands so much that they’ve become our ‘must-pack’ item whenever we go away. And our new friends at www.theidbandco.com have kindly offered to give some away to Candidtraveller.com readers over the next few months.
If you’d like the chance to win one of these fabulous child ID safety bands, perfect for keeping your children safe on holiday, then check out our prize draw competition page here for all the terms and conditions. And don’t forget to visit their website at www.theidbandco.com to have a look, because if you’re one of the lucky winners, they’ll let you choose your favourite colour too!
Happy (and safe) holidays….
