Tips for road tripping
What are some things to keep in mind for a successful road trip with the family? What are some fun things to do while driving for kids?
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Answers ( 1 )
First- and this is only a little bit tongue-in-cheek, get a copy of National Lampoon's Vacation. Watch it- without the kids. No need to give them any more ideas, see? But you need to watch it so you know exactly how bad things can get on a family vacation road trip- that way, since yours will not be anywhere near as bad as the Griswold Family's, you'll feel you were successful and created wonderful memories and stuff. After all, that's why you're doing it, right- the memories?
Of course it is!
Here's the deal, though, about a road trip with children: It is an awfully lot like a wedding. Nope, hear me out- you'll see.
So, most weddings are planned down to the last detail because the putative bride has been told in ways large and small that this day, This One Day, is the most important of her life- it must be perfect. Plus, a metric ton of money is being spent, it seems, and it would be a shame to waste all that money on something less than perfect, So it has to be exactly, every-single-detail right, perfect. And so at even a crumb of not-right- say a wilted carnation- the Bride feels her entire day has been ruined and her marriage is starting under a towering cloud of bad ju-ju.
And do you know what? Most parents think of a roadtrip vacation with children to create wonderful, life-long memories is just as important, which means the least little thing wrong absolutely ruins everything.
This, of course, is called "Setting yourself up for failure". Why?
Because stuff will go wrong.
People old and young will be crabby, will get bored, will become tired, will get hungry, carsick and need to use the bathroom, again. Yes, this soon. Yes- please hurry.
The First Rule of road trips with children vacations is: Don't sweat the small stuff. The Second Rule is, of course, It's ALL small stuff.
You have to go into it believing this without any reservations: It's ALL small stuff not to be sweated. If not, it isn't a vacation of wonderul memories, it's a trip to hell and back- and who wants to go there?
Once you have internalized what is big stuff (nothing) and what is small stuff (everything) you can make better plans.
A lot is going to depend on the age of the children involved; older kids are going to entertain themselves quite a bit, while younger children are going to sleep more. Road trips are good for reading, coloring, playing with handheld devices and even a hours-long scavenger-hunt competition out the car windows. I do not recommed sing-a-longs, but that's just me and children's known proclivities for starting up yet another verse out of the blue, just as younger sibling is dropping off to DreamLand. Besides, do you know how many verses there are to One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall? That's right: One Hundred.
Younger children, who aren't well-known for pacing themselves, should not be in charge of dragging all of the Things To Do out all at once; that needs to be an adult thing. You may want to institute a rule, such as "Only one Thing To Do out per hour" which saves sanity and teaches children why the phrase "A watched pot never boils" is trite. Extra points to the child who can define "trite". Do your adult best to hold at least one Thing To Do back for the second or third day- or else you'll spend way too much money on new, eye-catching Things To Do at travel stops.
Snacks are a good idea, but again, limit snacking so that all the snacks aren't just gobbled up before you've made it out of the county. Make snacks easy to eat, and not too messy- and yeah, good luck with that. "Healthy" snacks are fine, but yogurt in the car is asking for trouble. Stop for meals. You can pack a picnic, but stop to eat it. Let everyone stretch their legs a bit. And remember, what goes in must come out: The more you push fluids, the more often you'll have to take potty breaks.
If the little angels fall asleep, make sure you wake them before stopping for the night. They will need time to adjust to stopping, the hotel, the new beds, the way it smells, all of it, before they are going to be able to go back to sleep, and you really don't want them doing all of that while whining because they were deeply asleep, you stopped the car and said, "Okay! Let's get up to our beds!" Kids need to adjust to new stuff- but they do it fairly fast.
As you get close to your destination, start talking about what they will be seeing and doing very soon now- family members, the weather, any pets/sights, funplans. Make reaching your destination a big deal. And, remember that, on the way back- you do realize you have to do this road trip thing twice, right?- you will need a few new Things To Do because they will get bored sooner.
Older kids can play License Plate Poker- which is a good way to pass time. Otherwise, you're on your own- older kids are super picky about likes/dislikes/wants.
And, for grins, I will add a piece about TicTacs and the power of suggestion: