Hello and welcome back to the Simplicity Diaries with me, Kim John Payne. You done it again? Made a little bit of time to tune into this podcast. This week I wanted to talk about travelling with kids and one little tip about how this can go a whole lot, a lot better.
You probably remember if you've been tuning into these podcasts or reading any of my books that I'm a big fan of rhythm and I divide rhythm up increasingly into macro and micro rhythms. In fact, I think there's a podcast on this. But the macro rhythms are the big when, like when we do stuff, when we wake up, when we have breakfast, when we have snack, when we have lunch, all the way through to when we go to bed.
And those are the big rhythms connected to time. And those are really hard to keep up when you're traveling. You can do it up to a point, but it's just through the nature of traveling, it becomes difficult.
But the micro rhythms are the ones that you can keep up when you're traveling without a lot of stress. The micro rhythms are all the little hows, how we wake up, how we get dressed, all the little things that we do when we get dressed, what we put on first, what we put on second, what we put on third. This is for younger children who tend to be more adversely affected by travel, by the way.
And it might be, this is the way we have our breakfast. And we say thank you to the farmers. And then we do this, and then we do that, and then we do this, and after we're finished, then we do this.
And we ask, may we get down, please? And there's just a, whatever it is, there's little, little, little things, all the little breadcrumbs that link a child through the day. It could be little micro rhythms around bedtime or around bath time. It could be that bath time is, has certain little, you know, for a young child, a bath time song is sung, and then into the bath we go, and then you might take your special face cloth with you so it's recognizable.
And then out the bath we get, or even in the bath, we wash from our nose to our toes, and that's just the way we do it. And it's just repeated, you know, and the child gets out the bath and has a rub, rub, rub, and a burrito song, because you're making a big burrito of a little one. And even, you know, of course, older ones can just do things in the same little ways all the way, all the way to bed, you know, that this is my, we do our teeth in this way, and then we, and then we, and then we, and then we have our story, and then we have our cuddle.
And whatever, whatever it is, all those little micro rhythms are very, very portable. They're highly portable. And you've heard me talk about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems before.
The sympathetic is all the intake. It's all the excitement, the arousal, the reactions. And there's a lot of that in travel, right? There's a lot to take in for a child of any age, even a teenager.
There's a lot to take in. Well, what you're looking to do is balance that with the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the soothing, the calming, the digesting. And when those two things are in balance, you have a child who's actually going to enjoy the trip, is going to take things, is not going to be clingy or grumpy, not nearly so much.
And the parasympathetic is particularly helped by the micro rhythms, okay? Remember that. The calming, the soothing, the digesting, the feeling of I am secure, that is helped by doing all these little things in the same way. The big things, probably not possible always at airports or car journeys and so on.
We can do our best to have the big macro rhythms, the big rhythms in place. Sure, we can try that, but the micro rhythms are much, much easier to do. And that is the parasympathetic nervous system that's sending messages out to a child's whole being that I am safe.
Now, if a child feels safe in here, within their own little being, and in here within their own little family, they are going to be able to look outside themselves and enjoy what is coming up. They're going to enjoy the visiting of grandma and grandpa, the road trip you're taking, even the flights that you're taking will be much more balanced if you hold true as much as possible. It's not always, everything's not possible, but as much as possible to the little micro rhythms.
And before you set out on any journey, have a little think about, okay, what are the things, what are the little rhythms that I can keep going for my young child, for my slightly older one, my twin, or even teen? What are the things that we can do, all the little things that are going to stay the same? And that will ensure a much more enjoyable trip. Okay, I hope that's helpful. Bye-bye for now.
