I’ll jump straight to the point: yes, we bring a stroller through the airport - but with one pretty important caveat.

We travel with a stroller that was made for travel. That makes a huge difference.

Having a stroller in the airport gives you somewhere to keep your child contained, keeps everyone moving at roughly the same pace, and can even give them a place to eat a snack or meal while you’re on the move. In a busy airport, all of those things are definite pluses.

But there is a trade-off - it’s one more thing to manage.

If you’re already rolling multiple suitcases and carrying bags, adding a stroller can make navigating the airport more cumbersome. It can also add a little time along the way. You may need to take an elevator instead of an escalator, TSA may need to give the stroller an additional security check, and if you have a larger stroller, you’ll likely need to gate-check it before boarding.

None of those would be deal-breakers for us. They’re just things to factor into how much time you give yourself to get through the airport.

For us, the bigger picture matters more.

If we’re going on a vacation where we’ll be gone several days and doing a fair amount of walking, we’re taking the stroller - which means it’s coming through the airport with us, too.

We learned this lesson the hard way in Washington, D.C.

When our son was three, we decided to leave the stroller at home because we thought it would be one less thing to lug around. By the end of Day 1, we regretted that decision enough that we were trying to find a store where we could buy a cheap stroller to use for the rest of the trip.

So if you’re considering leaving the stroller behind simply because you don’t want to deal with it in the airport, think beyond those few hours. A little extra inconvenience on travel day may be well worth it once you reach your destination.

The stroller itself makes a difference.

We travel with the gb Pockit Air All Terrain, and that’s a big reason bringing a stroller through the airport works so well for us.

It folds down incredibly small, so we don’t have to gate-check it. We literally keep our son in the stroller until it’s time to board, fold it up, and carry it onto the plane. It can fit under the seat or in the overhead bin and, in our experience, hasn’t counted toward our carry-on allowance.

That’s a very different experience from traveling with a full-size stroller.

I’ve watched parents wrestle with large strollers in the jet bridge, trying to collapse them while everyone is boarding. And because those strollers need to be gate-checked, there can also be a wait to get them back after the flight.

That doesn’t mean a larger stroller isn’t worth bringing - plenty of families need and prefer them. But I can only speak to what works for us, and a compact travel stroller is what makes bringing one through the airport an easy yes.

Why we like having one in the airport

• It keeps our child contained. In a crowded airport, I like knowing exactly where he is rather than trying to keep track of him while we’re also managing bags.

• It keeps everyone moving together. We don’t have to slow down because little legs can’t keep up - especially when we’re trying to make a connection or get to a gate.

• He can eat on the go. If we’re short on time, we can hand him a snack or something easy to eat while we keep moving.

• It gives him somewhere to sit when he’s tired. Long terminals, connections and delays can mean a lot of walking and waiting before the vacation has even started.

The trade-offs

A stroller is still an extra piece of gear to transport. Give yourself a little extra time for security, elevators and boarding, and know your airline’s rules ahead of time if you’ll need to gate-check it.