Security and Toys

I regularly take my children to visit their grandparents. However, travelling with my three young kids can be a total pain. The eldest boy is eight years old, the middle girl is six, and the youngest boy is just four. This means that when we travel, their bags always end up overstuffed with toys, coloring books, crayons, and snacks. At those young ages, toys seem to be the only essential travel item. This means that my bag ends up filled with actual essentials, ranging from clothes, to hand sanitizer, to tooth brushes and tooth paste, to shampoo, to you name it.

I used to try to fight them on what to bring, but a midafternoon meltdown can often be prevented with the right toy, so I’ve learned to let them pack what they want. However, this often means that their bags end up overstuffed. The X-rays scanners used at my work and at airports do not see details very clearly. Inevitably, at least one, but usually three, and sometimes even my bag, needs to be searched.

I always end up apologizing profusely to the security officers as they pull out stuffed animals, dinosaurs, toy cars, and crayons. The security check table ends up looking like a disaster area.

One day, while heading to work, I saw a woman with a clear bag. The security offers gave the bag a quick once over, after it came out of the scanner, and sent the woman on her way. And that’s when I realized the solution to all my travelling woes.

My friend suggested I check out The Clear Bag Store, where I found the perfect bag for each of my children. They each got their own small backpack. I even got a pink one for my girl. Each child got to pick out a Gutzie to identify their bag with. My youngest son picked the dragon Gutzies while my oldest son picked the Dalmatian Gutzies. My daughter fell in love with the cat and butterfly Gutzies. While the kids love the bags, so does security. Now the security officers can see into their bags much more easily. There have been less instances of needing to empty the bags to see what is inside.

The bags have become so convenient that I ended up buying one myself. The medium diaper bag is the best bag I ever bought. Whether I’m trying to get through security to go to work or I’m travelling to visit my parents with my kids, it takes all the hassle out of getting through security lines. Travelling has become such a breeze now that the security offers don’t have to open up the bags to search them.

Getting through security lines faster has made travelling much easier on my children as well. Travelling can be exhausting for three kids so young, and speeding up the security process has made it much less stressful for them.