Traveling with kids: bringing comfort movies on your trip

Bringing comfort items for your kids when you go on a trip, especially if it's a long one, is a very good idea. These are items that help your kids feel more at home and relaxed, for example a favorite blanket, a soother, a stuffed animal, or a favored pillow, toy, or book.

When we head to Sweden to visit my parents for anywhere from two to four weeks, I always include movies as comfort items for my kids. As much as the children love visiting their grandparents, there are times when they like the comfort of watching a familiar show or movie while cozying up on the couch. It's also nice to cuddle with them watching one of their favorites if the weather is frightful, or if someone is feeling sick or down or just a little homesick.

So, I usually bring a small movie library along on these trips.

Things to consider

• If I could rule the world and technology, I'd keep all my movies as digital files, stored on a portable harddisc and just plug it into a player device at our destination, but that isn't possible everywhere just yet. So to keep the DVDs and BluRay discs safe on the journey, I usually take them out of their original boxes and put them into CD/DVD Binder. There are lots of different kinds, but my favorite is the smaller type, like Case Logic's Sport CD Wallet.

• Remember too, that if you're traveling to other parts of the world, you will run into the whole region-issue with your movies. This means DVDs and BluRays bought in one region, won't necessarily play on a media player bought in another region. To me, this is a huge pain, but luckily my parents do have a region-free player at their place in Sweden, so that makes it easier. You can also get around it by getting a portable player and bringing it with you, or by playing the discs off a portable computer from the right region.

Some favorites from my kids' movie library

• Megamind- My kids discovered this movie when we flew Lufthansa last time, and it was in heavy rotation at our house for a long time after that.
• Welcome To Lazytown - My daughter discovered this kids TV-show when we flew Iceland Air. It's a pretty trippy-looking show, employing the talents of Icelandic celebrity and acrobat Magnus Scheving.
• Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas- My son watched this holiday special Toot and Puddle movie a lot when we visited Sweden last summer (you can read more about that here). The movie is all about traveling far away to visit family and friends, and then coming back home to other family and friends. A perfect comfort movie for my son.
• Alice in Wonderland - My kids love this movie and so do I.
• The Wizard of Oz- The classic. Another perfect comfort movie about traveling far away but then returning home, safe and sound as well as wiser.
• Toy Story 1-3- These movies are three of my kids' favorites. All three are wonderful family movies.
• Finding Nemo- My favorite Pixar movie, and definitely a favorite of my kids. They know most of it by heart.
• How to Train Your Dragon- My kids love this movie, and it's a lot of fun for adults too.
• SpongeBob SquarePants - We first discovered the insanity of Sponge Bob when we were visiting Maui a few years back. He's stuck around ever since!
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - If you haven't met the inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit, you might want to check this one out!
• Ice Age- All the Ice Age movies (1-3) are loved by my kids. This past summer Ice Age 3, Dawn of the dinosaurs, was in especially heavy rotation when we were visiting Sweden.
• The Incredibles - More Pixar goodness.
• Tangled- The first "princess movie" my daughter really enjoyed. Have to confess I quite enjoyed it too...
• Monsters vs. Aliens-A highly entertaining animated movie with aliens, monsters, and an intergalactic bad guy by the name of Galaxar.

Because my children have recently discovered the movies by Hayao Miyazaki, there will be two  additions to our collection when we go on our next trip:

• Howl's Moving Castle, and
• Spirited Away 

Both movies are the best kind of fairy-tales: funny, romantic, dramatic, and also very beautiful. Highly recommended by my kids, and me!