(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Our time in Singapore has come to an end… our flight out has a check-in time of 10.00 pm and a departure time of almost midnight. We head past the Singapore “Eye” and to the airport.
The only negative point left in the trip will be the emotional goodbye when we will have to say goodbye to our wonderful Singaporean friend who will wave us though the departure gates and customs later in the evening.
We know the kids will be tired, and we are trying to keep them awake as long as possible now so that they will sleep for as much for the fourteen hour flight to Amsterdam as possible.
What does any parent do when this strategy involves keeping them up 3-4 hours past their bedtime? We promise them ice-cream of course.
Usually we have firm rules about desserts, quite simply it’s not a mandatory item on the menu, we want to teach our kids that often a Main course is sufficient. No Dessert is needed.
The next point is: dessert doesn’t not always have to mean “ice-cream” etc… if can just as easily mean banana, apples, grapes, kiwifruit, melon and other fresh fruit.
Lastly, Ice-cream is a Treat and not a standard menu item. Treats need to be earned with good behaviour and manners towards others, helping out with chores and naturally, never before a very decent portion of vegetables have been consumed.
If you make things like ice-cream a Treat then offering it at irregular times, especially when we travel, and without applying the veggie and chores section of the Rules, gives kids a sense of adventure and indulgence.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
As parents who have travelled the long haul experience with our kids regularly since they were born, we quickly learned that surviving this experience depends a lot of a “pick-your-battles” Rule.
Children love routine, they adore the same old pattern of events, eating at a set time, knowing what to expect, the active time of day, the slow winding down before bedtime, the set sleeping times. They thrive and feel safe with established boundaries that have been formed over time.
Long-haul travel throws all of this routine out of the window. We tried once the 24 hour flight from Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to Christchurch (New Zealand) with just a four hour stopover in Singapore between flights when the kids were far smaller.
It was a complete and utter failure, Himself and I couldn’t sleep on the flight, so arrived tired and looking gratefully forward to all of us having a four hour power- snooze in the airport hotel we had booked at Changi airport in Singapore.
The kids on the other hand, slept a little on the flight and arrived in Singapore with their body clocks set to “wide-awake and-play-mode” and worse, had a heap of energy to expend that neither of we parents could hope to keep pace with.
I have slept on the hard ground under only a blanket under the stars in New Zealand, I have slept on bare floorboards whilst travelling, and managed to sleep.
I have learned however that attempting to sleep in any kind of sitting position is something that I don’t appear to be able to master, no matter how tired I am so I never sleep on aircraft.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
( There has been only one solitary exception to this: we once travelled back from S’pore to A’dam on Christmas Day as it was the only flight possibility, and the flight was so empty that Himself, the kids and I had a row of three or four seats each. Seizing the opportunity we all stretched out and slept the bulk of the flight, but since that circumstance occurred pre harsher economic times for airlines, and on the one day of the year when people prefer not to be on a long haul flight, I expect that it’s highly unlikely that we will ever have that luxury again)
So, having learned that a four hour stop-over is not nearly enough time, we now like to make a decent stopover here on at least one leg of the journey and also learned that the promise of ice-cream goes gives about as many Parent-brownie-points as a kid can give, we also know that no late night departure from Singapore would be complete without a stop at the Earle Swensen’s establishment at the airport for something from the ice-cream section of the menu.
There is a wider food menu, a salad bar etc but we keep it simple and go for scoops, milkshakes and ice-cream floats.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
These are the best recycling bins I have ever seen… top marks Changi Aiport !
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
So eating ice-cream at 11:00 pm is Singapore’s last treat for us …
