Family Time Fridays!
We LOVE to travel as a family. As a family of 5, travel by car is our best option as it’s the cheapest way for us to go. Our motto is: Have car, will travel!
However, I know that not all families do car travel. Many will not even consider the infamous road trip option, especially if they have small children. Many parents are unwilling to even attempt going very far by car with their family, having heard or been a part of one too many unpleasant adventures. While every family is different, and road trips, for one reason or another, may not be the best way for every family to take a trip, there are many things that you can do to help remove the negatives and increase the enjoyment of travelling by car as a family together.
Start Small
It may not be easier to travel with little people, but the younger the kiddos are when you start to take them on car trips, the more they will be used to traveling that way. If road tripping with mom and dad is what the littles have always experienced, they will just assume that traveling by car is the norm. If, instead, you decide it’s better to wait until they are ‘older’ (maybe school-aged or over), there is a large possibility that first long road rides they do take will not be very enjoyable for the kiddos. Long car trips will not be normal for them, and it will be harder to for them to stay interested and happy. To make the process easier and help the kiddos to get used to traveling in a car, start taking even short road trips while they are still little. Even if the trips when they are really little aren’t easy, by the time they get big enough to remember traveling, the trips will get better, much better!
Our kiddos have traveled with us since they were weeks old. Some trips have been an hour long, some have been 3 days long, our Yukon trip was even 3 weeks! They are very used to all aspects of the road trip now, from packing to the trip itself to the clean up when we get back. At ages 11, 10 and 8, my children have experienced many things on our road trips, and they still love traveling with us.
Divide the trip up into shorter intervals, giving everyone opportunity to get out, stretch their legs, and have some fresh air. Stopping often at rest areas or gas stations or parks can break the monotony of seemingly endless miles of road, while providing opportunities for letting off some pent-up energy. Our kiddos always get out and run around while out of the car. We all have races to the washroom, and races to see how many times we can run 10 times around the car. After all, the physical activity is a good idea for us adults, too.
Remember, driving for very long stretches might take less time overall, but the pay-off might be grumpier travel companions. Dad’s especially need to remember that children’s bladders and attention spans are smaller than their own, and taking a pitstop is a GOOD idea, not just for the passengers, but also for fueling the car! It’s worth making the effort to stop and let everybody take a breather.
We often plan our trips so that we can stop at museums, national or parks or monuments, or other attractions along the way when we do have to stop. And every trip for our family includes one stop at a Dairy Queen (the proverbial Texas Stop Sign)!
Space Out
Something else to think about: When at all possible, give the kiddos their own space in the car, separating them as much as you can. Even switching places throughout the trip might be helpful, depending on your kids. Allow them to have their own space for themselves and their stuff. Make sure they have space to stretch out and are able to get to their things, within reason and while still wearing safety belts. Giving them extra room between them can possibly help to avoid sibling arguments, though there’s really no failsafe way to avoid these tiffs all together. As always, the best option is to break up the inevitable arguments early, before they become, what we call, “knock down drag out” fights.
My kiddos were thrilled when we got our mini-van, moving out of the Volkswagen Jetta they’d been scrunched into before. Travelling in the mini-van has been a bit easier for the children, even if it isn’t as fuel efficient as our diesel Jetta. We’ve had fewer scuffles over things like, “He’s touching me, MOM!” or “She’s got her arm on my armrest.” And that really is helpful.
Do Something
Let’s face it, sitting still for a long time anywhere is really hard for some children (and adults!). How much harder is it to remain quiet for very long when you’re buckled into a car with nothing to do. Avoid restlessness for the kiddos by being prepared ahead of time. Collect all sorts of fun things to do, and talk to your kiddos about what they might like to do in the car. Examples include, but are not limited to: small portable electronic games, books, dolls and toys, drawing boards or sketch pads, iPod, games to play in the car (travel bingo, I Spy, ABC game, license plate game), digital camera… The sky is the limit – well, that and, especially if space is an issue, the amount of stuff you want to take. Books on CD or tape (which we check out from the library), podcasts (which can be found on iTunes and many of which are free), and even Tales2Go are good ways to help the miles pass quickly.
For ourselves, for each trip I usually add another ‘thing’ to our travel stash. Prior to one trip, I went to the local Value Village and scoured through their games and toys section. I found a travel Connect 4 game, as well as about 6 small handheld computerized games (including Hangman, Little Mermaid, some kind of airplane game, and a McDonald’s Shrek game). The whole purchase cost me about $8 but they have provided for hours of entertainment on the trips we’ve taken. I made sure they all have a mute button (those beeps and blips coming from the backseat can get distracting), and we’ve had to replace their batteries once, but all in all, a very good purchase.
I’ve also gotten clipboards, sketch pads, Etcha sketches, and each kiddo has a small reusable bag to pack their things into. We try to stick to things that aren’t easily lost or broken. My boys have tried to travel with their Legos, and that’s not always a good idea, as those little pieces are easily misplaced in the seat cushions or on the floorboard.
We’ve also printed many things off the internet – colouring pages, bingo games, word searches, crosswords, etc. – from online and put them into binders, one for each of us. Our favorite new activity is mad-libs – funny stories that we all participate in making up, taking turns filling in the blanks with random nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. It’s fun, and we’re learning our parts of speech without even realizing it!
Other ideas for Travel Games include:
- Rubber Neckers – Everyone’s Favorite Travel Game
- Chronicle Books – Travel Activity Kit
- Travel Backgammon Game (or other games like Chess, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, etc.)
- Around the Table games (which I’ve written about in a previous post) – Family Talk, Family Talk 2, Buddy Talk, Grandparent Talk, Teen Talk, Camp Talk
Really, the sky is the limit!
The point of all of this is to keep the children in the car occupied and happy, while also with the hopes of making the trip as much fun as the place you’re going.
Reduce Stress
Trips aren’t just for children, are they? They are for the WHOLE family. So, do what you can to make the drive easier for the adults in the car, too.
One thing you might find helpful is starting the trip early in the morning, when the kids are most likely to fall back to sleep in the car, will get you down the road a few more miles before the need to entertain the children becomes a concern. We’ve had a few trips where we started around midnight so that the children would sleep for a good part of the trip. Those trips required much Dr Pepper and many boxes of mini chocolate donuts to keep the adults awake, but the children traveled very well!
Don’t add stress to the trip by trying to text or e-mail from your cell phone while in the driver’s seat. If you must connect with work or others while you’re traveling (and there are times when you really MUST) think about using voice to text and voice to email services, like those provided by VoiceItAll.
Plan ahead by getting good maps of the specific roads you’ll be travelling, complete with rest area listings and any attractions or playgrounds around. These maps are invaluable for planning those important break stops and avoiding navigational confusion (i.e., arguments between parents!). Try finding a kid-friendly map or atlas to show them where you’ll be going, even letting the children choose a place they’d like to visit.
And don’t forget to take the time before the trip to have the car properly checked out and maintenance completed (oil change, new tires, etc.) to avoid car problems. Nothing is more stressful than being stuck in a broken car on the side of the road.
In our experience, family road trips can be a blast (no joke!) and make lasting positive memories. So don’t shy away from planning your next adventure in the car with the family. Try not to forget that the trip itself is just as important as the destination.
Starting to travel when the kiddos are little, making frequent stops along the way, giving everyone some space, having many fun activities available for the passengers in the car, and taking steps to reduce the stress on the grown-ups in the car – these simple steps can help to make your next family road trip excellent!
Check out more Family Time Fridays here at my blog, and over at Tidbits of Tammy, too!
