Getting ready to take a flight with your kids and not sure what to pack in your personal item? Here are all of this mom’s personal item essentials that I think you’ll be happy to have at your feet on your next flight.
Traveling with your family when you have young children is a whole thing. To keep things moving as smoothly as possible on potentially stressful travel days, Mom needs a whole bunch of stuff for everyone in the family. The trouble is that all this stuff must fit in her personal item, a small bag that gets stashed under the seat in front of her. Have you seen that space? It’s not big!
The bag
Before we talk about what goes into mom’s personal item, we need to talk about what bag I think you should use. Now, what bag you use as your personal item is, of course, a personal choice. We all have preferences. If you don’t know where to start, or you’re brand new at this whole mom on a plane thing, I’m happy to share my preference.
Most importantly, I prefer a backpack style bag as my personal item when I’m traveling with my kids. Even as my kids get a little older (they’re 4 and 6 ½), I still need free use of both hands. The easiest way to keep me as mobile as possible is to put my pack on my back.
My pick
I’ve tried a few travel backpacks over the years I have been a mom. The best one I’ve tried, hands down, is from Vera Bradley. I have the XL Campus travel backpack, which doesn’t appear to be available anymore. I took a look at the current offerings on the Vera Bradley website, and it looks like they’re now calling a very similar bag the XL Bancroft Backpack.
Why do I love this travel backpack? It has tons of pockets for organizing all mom’s personal item essentials, it easily wipes off, it is comfortable to wear trekking through the airport, and it has a trolley sleeve to corral it when you have to bring it into the bathroom. There isn’t anything I don’t love about this bag. If you’re in the market for a new travel backpack, I highly recommend!
OK, now that we’ve gotten the bag out of the way, let’s talk about filling it! Before I get into the details of what I think are mom’s personal item essentials, I want to talk about what I’m not covering. My kids are old enough now to carry their own bags with their own activities, so that stuff no longer gets real estate in my personal item. My husband also carries his own backpack, so we won’t be talking about his dad-specific stuff either. Now that we have the scoping out of the way, let’s get into mom’s personal item essentials.
Mom’s Personal Item Essentials
Clothes
Folks, I have learned the hard way that you need to pack extra clothes in your personal item. You never know what’s going to happen on an airplane.
On my son’s return flight on his first ever plane trip, he was congested and had dozed off in his seat. About halfway into the flight, we started experiencing some pretty rough air. Post-nasal drip plus turbulence turned out not to be a pretty combination. He got sick. All over himself, his seat, and his parents. Everyone needed a change of clothes. I had an extra outfit for my son in my personal item and I had shoved an extra shirt for my husband in the backpack too, but not for me. From then on, we do not set foot on an airplane without extra clothes for everyone.
Snacks
This is perhaps the most important item on this list of mom’s personal item essentials, so listen up! It is absolutely crucial to have a ton of snacks when traveling with kids. When you pack your snacks and you think you have enough, double them. This cannot be overstated. Snacks will be your best friend when flying with kids.
When we first started traveling with our kids, I focused on having plenty of activities available to keep my kids busy during the flight. Now I have learned that snacks are often their favorite airplane activity. And I could care less about how healthy their travel snacks are. A well-timed lollipop can be the difference between a good day and a disaster.
Sanitizer
Kids touch everything! To try to prevent them from getting sick from this nasty habit, I devote the entire front pocket of my backpack to sanitizing products. You might think this is overkill, but with two types of sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer spray, it’s space I need.
Wipes
Yes, I consider two different types of sanitizing wipes as mom’s personal item essentials. I need both, and I think you need both too.
Clorox wipes
I always bring a travel envelope of Clorox wipes in my personal item. You can find these in the travel section at your local big box store. These are essential for wiping surfaces in the airplane that your kids will invariably touch. Tray tables, seats, and window casings could all use a little bit of a wipe down with a Clorox wipe before your kid gets situated.
Wet Ones
Wet Ones can be absolute life savers on the airplane or in the airport. Change a diaper in an airport bathroom and don’t trust your kid not to take off while you wash your hands? Wet One! Kids want a snack while sitting at the gate waiting to get on the plane? Wet One! Kids touch literally everything they can possibly reach? Wet One! You can buy them in single packs or in travel envelopes like the Clorox wipes. I like the single packs so I can deal them like cards to the kids and they can rip them open themselves. They are much more excited about using them in this form.
Spray
Do we need both hand sanitizer wipes and spray? I think yes. The wipes have their place, for sure, but they can be a bit of a production. If you need clean hands and you need them fast, the spray is your best bet. Stow it in a handy part of your personal item so you can grab it, uncap it, and spray whoever is in danger of infecting himself.
1st aid
Keep all the medical and medical-adjacent products with you in your personal item. Don’t pack them in a hard to access carry-on or, even worse, your checked luggage. You never know when you might need over the counter medicine for you or the kids, a bandaid, lip balm, or one of the 17 other things you carry around in your mom bag on a daily basis for just in case. I’m sure you have a pouch of this stuff in your daily bag. Just transfer it to your personal item before you take a trip.
Water bottle
Have you bought bottled water at an airport lately? The last time I did, I nearly keeled straight over. Save yourself the sticker shock while still keeping yourself hydrated and bring a water bottle with you in your personal item. Just remember that you need to bring it empty and fill it up after security or you’ll be relying on your chugging skills from college if you want to keep that $40 water bottle.
Technology
I’ve included a whole technology category on my list of mom’s personal item essentials. Mostly, this is because we all have a lot of tech items that we take everywhere we go. It’s also because everyone’s must-have tech is a little bit different. Below, I’m sharing my tech essentials, but feel free to add to or subtract from this list when you’re packing your personal item.
Phone
Duh. Bring your phone in your personal item.
Chargers
I want my chargers for all the things (phone, earbuds, watch, camera, whatever) in my personal item just in case.
Portable charger
In case your phone dies at a time when you don’t have access to a wall plug for a conventional charge, please throw a fully charged portable charger into your personal item. This can really avert disaster if you need an Uber when you arrive to your destination or if your kid is happily watching a movie on your phone while you read your book.
Headphones
I know a lot of people out there love white noise, but it’s not for me (that’s the euphemism for “I hate this” that I’m trying to teach my kids). Airplanes in flight are nothing but white noise, so I need some sound to cover it up or I go mad. Headphones of some variety are thus one of my mom’s personal item essentials because no one wants mom to go mad on a travel day.
iPad
We let our kids watch a tablet only when we are traveling. Because they don’t get it very often, they don’t even really want it when they do. We still bring it, though, because even just a 15-minute stretch of peace and quiet can rally the parents to get them through the day.
Pen
You never know when you’re going to need a pen. If you’re traveling overseas, you’ll need one to fill out the customs form the flight attendants will pass out. If you’re not traveling overseas, you may still need one. I mean, sometimes an emergency game of tic tac toe can right a sinking ship. As a matter of fact, pack a small notepad with your pen too.
Toiletries
I don’t always pack my entire set of toiletries in my personal item, but I always carry at least the basics with me. Think toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, sanitary napkins, etc. These are items you don’t want to be without if you need them, so don’t take the chance.
Travel documents
Call me old school, but I always print out my travel documents and carry them with me in a folder in my personal item. This folder includes boarding passes, confirmation numbers, attraction tickets, and a copy of my passport if I’m traveling internationally. I like to have back-ups!
Book
Is it a pipe dream to expect to read a book when you’re traveling with your family? Probably. But don’t be caught without one in the unlikely event that everyone in your family leaves you alone for five minutes. Again, I’m old school, so I like to bring a physical book. But you can also have a digital book downloaded to your phone or tablet or an audio book ready to listen to.
Layer
You can often experience all four seasons on an airplane. To help you deal with these weird temperature swings, I always recommend including a layer of some sort on your list of mom’s personal item essentials. My layer of choice is a light sweatshirt, but one of those big wrap things also does the job.
Other posts
Looking for more travel-related posts? Here are a few you might like:
I hope that this exercise of sharing my list of mom’s personal item essentials has helped you begin to pack your personal item for your upcoming trip. Where are you traveling with your family next? I’m working on my bucket list! Please share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.