Traveling with a large family

We get asked a lot how we have managed traveling as a large family.  We don't really feel qualified to do a post on how to travel with kids because we feel like we make a lot of mistakes and things are rarely perfect. We asked our kids to tell us some of the positives and negatives that come from traveling as a large family.  At first, they came up with a lot of cons and very few pros.  When things are challenging it can be hard to find the positives.  We asked them to keep thinking and they were able to find as many positives as they listed negatives.  I guess this tells us a lot about perspective ...

Pros and Cons of traveling as a family of 7 (2 parents & 5 children)

Pros
1.  Getting moved to the shorter line when coming through immigration at Heathrow airport
2.  People volunteering to let you sit down on the Underground
3.  There's more people to enjoy things with.  Some things are a completely different experience when enjoyed with multiple ages.  Matilda would not have been nearly as much fun without our little kids and Wicked and Hamilton would not have been so enjoyable without our teenagers.
4.  Getting to use the handicapped entrance to the London Underground because you have little kids that don't need a pass
5.  There are little kids that don't mind sleeping on the hard sofa beds leaving the more comfortable beds available for the "older" members of the family
6.  The little kids give you an excuse to come home and rest in the afternoon
7.  Life as a large traveling family can be fun, entertaining, aggravating, and challenging but never boring
8.  Group/family discounts on entrance fees
9.  Experiencing life through the eyes of Pup Pup and Lydia

Danika shrieking for joy before Hamilton!

Family made platform 9 3/4 magical.

Leake street graffiti art was a request from our teens!

Pup Pup and Uni have enjoyed experiencing all of London!

Coming to see Wicked fulfilled a promise to our kids, and is probably the main reason we came to London.

Cons
1.  Trying to find housing big enough to fit all of us.  Options are much more limited and usually quite expensive whether you're looking at hotels or airbnb/vrbo.
2.  Managing the interests of so many people of different ages.  It's rare to find activities that are good for the whole family so we do our best to mix activities for everyone with activities just for older kids or just for younger kids.
3.  Laundry ... laundry ... and MORE laundry.  We average 2 loads a day, which gets really tricky when you have a washing machine, no dryer and no place to really dry anything.  We use the radiators, backs and sides of chairs and the ironing board without its cover and it still takes forever to finish the laundry.
4.  Packing for seven people (6 large suitcases, 5 small suitcases & 5 backpacks) and it still feels like we can barely fit all our stuff in our luggage
5.  Trying to get through the crowded London Underground and not lose anyone
6.  Sharing one bathroom.  This gets quite tricky but especially so when there's no shower curtain.  With a shower curtain you can at least have one person bathing and still have the toilet available for use.  Without a shower curtain it gets much more challenging.  On a positive note, one bathroom also means only one bathroom to clean ...
7.  It takes longer to get out the door in the morning
8.  Everything is more expensive
9.  You can't fit into a single taxi but require a large van or two taxis

This was us on our good day.

They had cages for the animals at the Tower of London. Can we keep them in there ... please?

Our bilingual children at the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum ... before one ran away and got lost temporarily.

Doing laundry with no dryer ... 

When we were preparing for our travels with 5 children (ages 4-16), it was helpful to read other parents' blog posts.  We don't claim to be pros (far from it) but figured we could share here what has helped us.  Below we've included a few things we've done to make traveling as a large family and/or with young children manageable.  Some are things we've done on this trip and others we did when we went to China a couple years ago.  This is definitely not an exhaustive list and we will continue to add to it.  Feel free to comment suggestions that you have found helpful in your own travels as well.

Things that have been helpful for us:

1. For the plane, we picked up cheap old kindle fires at a local school that was upgrading their technology. One for each kid with over-the-ear headphones to block sound, and then we load them with movies ripped from our DVD collection. This has worked awesome for us. The kids get hooked on them quickly, so we put them away once we reach our destination so that they are "just for traveling."

2. We average about one backpack for every two people on the plane for travel activities and treats.

3. This isn't really unique to traveling, but it's so much more important when traveling: fewer choices. Instead "what do you want to eat" or "what do you want to do today?" go with "do you want X or Y?" Otherwise, the answer is always going to be "fries" and customized hamburgers, even when you are doing high tea in London.

4. Buddy system ... every small child is given into the responsibility of a parent or an older sibling.

5. Soft structured carriers for the little ones. Stephanie made ours, but you can buy them too. When they are older, they don't like being in them for long, but it's still a welcome break for their tired feet. We used these a lot when walking on the road particularly to prevent running away.

6. When not in the backpack, we use a leash on our youngest almost always.

7. Dog tags and bluetooth call buttons (we use Tile). The dog tags have their name and our phone number in case they are hurt and somebody finds them. The Tile buttons allow us to track them within 300 feet, which is handy for a museum to give them some mobility.

8. "Everyone gets to do one favorite activity." This has been a useful trick for us ... everyone gets to choose something to do, and as a family we all go along with their choices. This may mean a park one day and a musical or shopping the next.

9.  Make room for "down" time.  This is a helpful tip not just for large families but it can be especially helpful when you're dragging a lot of people across the globe.  We found it best to schedule one or two activities at most each day.  Those activities were the ones that were chosen as the "favorite activities" in #8 above.  The rest of the time was either down time or could be filled with optional activities if we found we wanted to go out again.  Down time gives time not only for resting but also for getting ready in the morning, doing laundry, going to the store, etc.  Along with this, realize that doing necessary, simple activities (like laundry or going to the store) can be an adventure and a lesson in a different culture themselves.  Even the mundane can be an adventure!