Introducing iPad during travel failed completely, advice needed for future travels
We recently had a 3-hour flight and I decided to introduce iPad to my son, who just turned 2.5. I downloaded several shows for the flight, including many short forms ones but it failed completely. He only watched show for 1 minute before throwing the iPad onto the floor.
My son only had weekly Facetime before 2, and after 2, I sometimes let him watch his own videos on my phone. Before the trip, we only tried to introduce My Neighbor Totoro twice and he didn't last long, so we stopped introducing shows.
During the trip, the things that kept him occupied are snacks, watch his own video on my phone, climbing onto his seat and jumping down, open close window blind, but none of his toys can keep him engaged at all. He is a super active kid. He prefer spends most of his time outdoor when weather allows, and doesn't play with toys much at home. I feel like most of the things that people recommend for traveling, like drawing (both color and the water type), stickers, magna tiles, and unwrap new toys, do not work for him.
After the trip, I started to introduce cartoons more intentionally. Now I let him watch 3 to 4 low stimulation shorts shows (8 minutes each) in the evening. I found out he's only interested in topics that he's familiar with, and he prefer to watch the same shows over and over. He often refuse a new episode when I try to introduce. We do a movie night on the weekend, putting on the projector and play Totoro. Now he can last 30 minutes.
The thing is, I really want to bring him to China (where I'm from and all my family live). But the flight is 17 hours. Most suggestion I've seen is unlimited screen time during long flight. But I seriously wonder how it works if screen time is limited normally and the toddler is not used to watch for long hours. I literally canceled my summer plan to visit my hometown after this trip, because I think there's no way he can survive a long flight. But I really want to make the trip next year, when he's close to 4. But I also think it's silly to keep increasing his screen exposure just to build up this tolerance for a future trip.
Do low-screen family postpone their long trips once the kids are older? I'm also curious about how do you introduce screens in general, and how often do you let your toddler watches shows.