Today is one of the busiest long-distance travel days of the year. With the number of long-distance trips (to and from a ­destination 50 miles or more away) increasing by 54 percent, crowds are bound to swell, tensions are hovering around the ignition point, and babies, those wonderfully cute babies, are assuredly going to melt down and have a good cry. I am conveying all this to you after a thoroughly un-fun 12-plus hours of travel time from East Coast to West Coast with a child, who proved to me that air travel is not a point A to point B equation, but a collective journey into the stratospheric heart of compassion and spitefulness.

I will not pick through the gory details of the day’s events (5 a.m. wake-up, traffic, rush through security, argument with TSA official about child’s water bottle, cranky flight attendants, cranky child, supremely cranky seat neighbors, brief family nap, thoughts of purgatory set in, landing, rental car, rental car malfunction and return, new rental car, hunger, food, more traffic and then sleep) but I will say that even if you established a dignified level of proficiency with air travel, and have figured out how to move through airports with your children, there will always be moments/excursions that will humble and confound.

There are obvious tricks of the trade that are essential to know, and know well:

1. Mentally and emotionally prepare your child/children (as well as yourself) for the plane ride. Emphasize the journey over the specifics and do whatever you need to do to remain highly (if not magically) creative.

2. Don’t rely on the flight crew to do anything but keep the plane in the air. Yes, some flight attendants are wonderfully on the ball, but many are just too busy, jet lagged, or uninterested to come to your rescue when you run out of wipes, need a pencil, or even are covered with orange juice and are in desperate need of a napkin. Bring supplies (books, writing materials, snacks galore, DVDs if that is within your margin of acceptance, and surprise toys and novelties to bring out when all else fails).

3. Provide snacks/meals that are easily managed (avoid messy dipping sauces, or cumbersome items like ribs and pizza) low in sugar, low in salt, and nutritious without being too filling (veggies, grapes, light sandwiches cut to resemble the shape of airplanes or boarding passes).

4. If possible, try to allow your child a decent amount of exercise and ya-ya getting-out time prior to boarding. (Even if this means racing around the airport and making a spectacle of yourselves, as being a spectacle in the terminal is far more socially acceptable than being an in-flight spectacle.)

More tips to come for the return trip home. These will be specifically aimed at passengers who, despite their best attempts, are forced to fly alongside people with babies and children.

Stay tuned.

Eric Steinman is a freelance writer based in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He regularly writes about food, music, art, architecture and culture and is a regular contributor to Bon Appétit among other publications.