I wrote this a number of years ago, when we mostly drove to destinations and I didn’t have teenagers, but even though my kids are older, I still utilize almost all of these tips! We are taking another long road trip and I am so excited for the time with the kids!
I love road trips. I love that you can grab a few essentials, jump in the car, and go. It doesn't require months of planning, and you get to explore our gorgeous country! Yes- I even love them with our kids. I think flying is great, but it doesn't offer the same time making memories that a drive can.
Last year right about this time, I was loading my family in the car to drive 17 hours from Denver to my In-Laws house in Texas. My hubby and oldest daughter had to stay behind for a volleyball tournament and would fly into town in a couple days. Everyone thought I was nuts for packing up our 4 other kiddos and going for it alone- but I was excited! So excited, we are about to do it again in a couple weeks. I'm not a good night time driver (my brain says "Hey! It's dark! Sleep!"), so I like to leave around 4 or 5am. That way the kids sleep a little longer, I get to see the sunrise, and BONUS- we avoid the rush hours through the first few cities we drive through. We drove about 15 hours the first day, and I decided that I would rather treat the kids to a night in a hotel room to get their wiggles out than treat my in-laws to road- weary kids. We didn't have 1 instance of fighting, whining, or complaining. In fact, I would say it was probably one of my top 3 favorite road trips ever. We use some simple tricks to make it fun for all of us.
You might think I'm crazy for driving across the country with my kids (yes, even without the hubby)- but I'm going to offer some tips to make it so you can love road trips as much as I do!
1. Lists are your best friends.
Even if you're hopping into the car for an impromptu weekend away, having a packing list is going to save your rear. There isn't much worse than being in the middle of nowhere and realizing you forgot to pack the diapers! (I totally did it our last road trip... it was a special kind of challenge!)
List by person first. Go through each person in your family and write down the essentials for each, including toiletries. *For most trips I pack by day, all of the needs into a tub for the whole family for 1 day (or a suitcase covers a couple days). One suitcase out of the car at a time- it's a beautiful thing. Crazy easy to keep the dirty laundry away from the clean that way!*
Then I make a list for what is needed in the car for each, a shopping list (grocery and non grocery), and a master list of everything. I like lists- it helps my brain feel functional! When I make lists, everything gets remembered. When I wing it... We forget diapers 3 hours from the nearest store.
After lots of requests, I'm working on making our trip list shareable and will post the link here as soon as it is up!
2. Pack everything but the cooler the night before.
Trying to remember everything you need to take out of the house at 4am and pre-coffee can be stressful. It also slows you down. We load the car the night before our trip so all we need to do is grab kiddos, pillows, the cooler, and we are off.
It has done wonders for me to have everything arranged the day before our road trip- right down to cups in cup holders, shoes in the shoe bucket, and blankets folded near seats. I can check off my list without the last minute stress of wondering what I forgot. I set the cooler right in front of the door before I head to bed, and grab the pillows as I grab the kids out of bed. They stay in their pajamas until our breakfast rest stop (sometimes they just stay in their pajamas).
3. Make rest stops fun!
When your kids are under 10, jumping out and having a 5 minute potty break isn't realistic. They need a chance to stretch their legs, fry some energy, and shake the sillies out. So when I make a potty stop, we do just those things. Put your mindset into "Fun" mode vs "Stress and Rush" mode. You don't have to be at your destination at a set time, so breathe, smile, and do a silly dance around the car with your kids. Take 20-30 minutes to walk, run, spin in circles, anything movement. Celebrate that you made it to each rest stop, I promise it will set the tone for the next stretch of your drive, and the time will make up for itself in attitudes later. Plan 2-3 extra hours in your total drive for this.
*Side note- a lot of rest stops have playgrounds. Use them to your advantage! Make gas stops fast stops, and rest stops longer. Yes, that means more stops- but sanity is worth it, isn't it?
4. Pack snacks and drinks
Special snacks make road trip sweeter! We keep snacks pretty basic at home, so when we go on road trips, we like to have special snacks packed for everyone to look forward to. Trader Joe's is my favorite road-snack stop (especially for mommy and daddy snacks- if you haven't had their chocolate covered espresso beans... you must. They're great for the long drive!)
Here are some of my snack requirements for the road:
Low sugar. The last thing we need is a sugar wired kid strapped in a seat for hours!
Little to no food dye. Again, wired, emotional kids strapped in a rolling box for hours- no fun for the grown ups.
Easy to pass around & Easy to clean up. String cheese, Trail Mix, Apple Sauce in little squeeze packets (usually reserved for rest stops), Home Made "lunchables", Fig Bars, and fruit are some favorites.
Everyone gets their own cup to reuse that has a lid and straw. The less spills the better! Pack a gallon jug of water for refills between stops. We pack juice for special rest stops that we plan to have them running for a bit.
5. Make a playlist
This is simply a Road Trip must. Thanks to the beauty of Spotify, we have made extensive playlists for several of our road trips.
We try to include something for everyone, and something to fit all moods. Music can carry the attitude of an entire room, so choosing a variety of songs for each mood is huge!
If you don't know where to start, I recommend Folk Pop for driving, 90's Pop hits for getting your goofy on, Power Ballads for when you need to stay awake (what better way to perk up than all singing at the top of your lungs?), a touch of Broadway musicals, Songs to embarrass your kids with, a few your kids love, and if you have a toddler, the emergency Barney playlist (Only for emergencies... once this starts you MIGHT have to play it until they fall asleep!)
6. Tablets! (and headphones)
Part of the beauty of taking road trips now is the glorious invention of the tablet. Our kiddos have the Kid version of the Kindle. We've had ipads in the past, and they were awesome but are slowly dying off, so when our last trip rolled around, we decided to splurge on the kid version of the kindle.
(we got 3 different colors for the kids to save mix ups)
If you haven't looked at them, they are worth peeking at, especially for kids under 10. Amazon will replace it, no questions asked, for 2 years. So if they drop it, drown it, run it over- as long as you have a kindle to return, they will send you a new one. It comes with a case that I was a little skeptical about but it seems to work great! The Kindle comes with a year of FreeTime as well (my favorite part). FreeTime has 100's of books and apps they can choose and load onto their kindle for free AND you get to set limits on the electronics! So, if you want them to read for an hour before they have app access, then apps for 30 minutes, then back to books, you get to set it up that way! It makes me feel like we aren't ruining them on electronics, because they are mostly reading books! They love it because they get to have control and don't have to share with each other during Kindle time.
Don't forget headphones for each of them as well. We just found $5 headphones in the Dollar Section of Target. They cover the whole ear and have pretty decent sound quality. I feel like if they last even just a month or two they will have done a great job for that price! You can also get kiddo headphones on Amazon too for the little guys.
7. Redbox baby.
I can't rent from Redbox when we are at home, because inevitably I forget we've had it for 4 days, and by that point I may as well have bought the darn thing anyhow... But when we are on the road, it's a total God-Send!
I love that you can rent a movie, watch it as you drive and return it anywhere. No need to keep track of a disc for the whole trip (that's asking for it to get scratched or lost in our world)- just rent, watch, return. You can find them all over the place!
We just got our first car with a built in DVD player- but before that we used 2 of the 2-screen Portable DVD players that attach to headrests- these are the ones we liked, we snagged them on Craigslist, and I suggest checking there first, because often people use them for 1 road trip and then sell them!
8. Entertainment boxes
The Kindle and a couple movies will get a few hours, but there are still spaces I like to fill with other options. I know some opt to put the entertainment box (or busy boxes) next to the kids to sift through at their leisure, but one thing I've learned about my kids is given the opportunity to have a lot of new things at once, they will be overwhelmed and subsequently only enjoy each thing for 15 minutes *max* and then be seeking something else.
So our entertainment box is a slow leak. They kind of have a check out system, have an item or two, trade out for something else. It minimizes the mess in the car, and draws out how long they play with something.
We always have coloring books, and learned the hard way think Texas-in-the-summer that crayons are a bad idea. We do colored pencils for the big kids, and Color Wonder for the little ones. We also splurge on Usborne books/activity books (yay end of school book fair!) that I hide away until the trip- they have some of the coolest books for older kids, we love the Write your Own series- Storybook, Comics, Adventure Story (you can check them out here, but I'm sure they're on Amazon too)- I'll warn you though- their books are amazing and made for all ages- it's hard not to want them all! We also try to pack a clean craft that can keep hands and eyes busy. There are tons of age appropriate options at Target or Joann/Hobby Lobby.
9. Pick 1 meal to eat out
Part of going new places is trying new things, right? One thing my kids look forward to on a road trip is the 1 meal out we choose during a drive day. In fact, they will hold it together through those rough hours of the day where they are starting to get antsy and tired for the promise of that treat (which is why it is on the list, of course!) We try to pick something we can't get here at home, that also offers the opportunity to move around a bit.
I don't like to eat out for every meal, mostly because I would rather spend trip money in other ways- so we pack breakfast and lunch food in the cooler and typically opt for a dinner out. Better yet is when we can grab it and head to a park for a picnic and play before we hit the road again. Dinner is one of our bigger stops usually- we plan around a full hour of movement for the kids before we try to get in another 4-5 hours of driving in. It is important to make it a positive stop so that final stretch for the day isn't complete torture for all parties!
10. Prize Box
I have a prize box for my family sessions, so kiddos can pick something special after our photo session as a reward for playing through their pictures with me, and for not making their mommy and daddy lose their minds. I realized as my kids drooled over the goodies in there that they weren't allowed to touch, that I could probably get the same results for my kids if they had a little motivation to earn a prize during our trip. So, the Prize Box came to be.
You know those surprise egg Youtube videos that kiddos love? I hunted down those little surprise packs at Target and started slowly collecting them for the prize box. We also put in stickers, special pencils, and other fun goodies. It stays hidden in the house when we aren't traveling, but on trips longer than 4 hours, it comes with us.
For our 17 hour trip, they get a prize of their choosing from the box mid-day if they've had great attitudes, or at least have done their best to turn their attitude around if it has gone south, and another prize when we get to our destination as my thank you for hanging in there through the long day.
This is the very best thing ever. They look forward to it for weeks! It's so silly and small, but because it is special to car trips, they love it.
AND bonus 11. Breathe and Smile
I truly believe that *most days* we get to choose how we react to the way life happens around us. Are your kids going to be perfect during your car trip? No. At least, it's highly unlikely. But, you can choose to breathe through that moment, smile, and try to make it positive. When things mellow out, thank them for it. Kids are so smart. They will receive that feedback. They will also feed off your attitude. You choose happy and silly? It will be hard to resist doing the same.
Thank them for a positive potty stop. Praise them for not knocking over everything on the shelves at the gas station. And if they DO knock everything over? Laugh, smile, take a deep breath, and add it to the memories you get to share when you want to embarrass them in front of their future spouse. That is simply a moment in a 1000 moments of life- but your response will stay with them forever.
Do I love road trips because they're a breeze? No. They're a challenge! I do love road trips though, because it is an opportunity to make memories, have time together, and to stretch ourselves as a family.
Maybe I'm just sentimental, but that is what makes life beautiful.