Carrie Bickmore hilariously recounts difficult long-haul flight with her kids

LONG delays, hungry bellies, cries of boredom and mystery smells. Flying with kids can be hell, but luckily Carrie Bickmore has a good sense of humour.

PARENTING has its ups and downs, but when you’re on a long-haul flight with your darling children, oh how much bigger those ups and downs seem.

One parent who knows that too well is Carrie Bickmore, who has hilariously documented a particularly gruelling 11-hour flight she endured with children Ollie, 10, and Evie, three, during a recent family holiday with her partner Chris Walker.

Writing for Stellar, out today, The Project co-host honestly detailed a very relatable hour-by-hour account of the taxing flight, which began in a manner that would strike terror into the heart of any flying mum and dad: with a lengthy delay on the tarmac.

Carrie Bickmore, who is expecting her third child, pictured with Ollie, 10, and Evie, three, at the launch of a new line of Beanies 4 Brain Cancer.

By the second hour, the plane still hadn’t taken off and Ollie and Evie had already devoured all the snacks Bickmore thoughtfully packed.

“My friend suggested bringing one little wrapped pressie for every hour of the flight to avoid them spending the entire time on screens,” Bickmore wrote.

“Great parenting, I thought. But Evie’s seat looks like Christmas morning already and I have just one gift left for when we are in the air.”

By the third hour, Bickmore said she’d given up and given the kids an iPad. Another hour passed and the kids were famished with a long way to go until the next food service.

Hour six seemed a little more manageable.

“Both kids still watching screens,” Bickmore reported. “I think I could finally watch Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette.

“I watch it in two-minute instalments as I keep stopping to reinsert Evie’s earbuds and take her to the toilet for the 100th time. She’s just intrigued at the sound it makes and never actually goes.”

In the seventh hour, Bickmore was gripped by two thoughts: how did her mother ever endure this, and “who is making that smell?”.

The second half of the flight proved as challenging as the first, with little Evie in particular struggling with the unique discomfort of long-haul air travel.

Eventually, it all became a little too much to bear. Patience finally ran out sometime around hour nine.

“Are we there yet? Please, for the love of humanity, are we there yet? Why is Australia so far from everywhere?!” Bickmore wrote.

Just when she thought it was over, there was more disappointing news from the cockpit: no available runways at the destination airport meant the plane had to circle for a while.

The Gold Logie winner knows too well the stress of travelling with kids in tow. Picture: Jerad Williams

And the airport had its own challenges, as Bickmore and Walker lugged the kids through customs and endured the mystery of Evie’s missing pram.

But after the weary family arrived home, the torment of the 12-hour experience suddenly seemed miles away.

“Mum calls and asks, ‘How was the trip?’” Bickmore wrote. “I reply, ‘It was amazing, we want to go back’.

“How quickly we’ve forgotten the pain. Already planning our next adventure.”

Stellar is available within this week’s issue of Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Herald Sun.