Traveling With Kids: How To Avoid The Top 10 Road Trip Stresses

By Linda Walsh

Growing up in a family of 5 kids, it seemed that my poor Dad yelled at us a lot while we were on long road trips. I can blame most of it on my older brother who seemed to enjoy instigating in the car (yeah Johnny, I am talking about you!).

The fact of the matter was, our long road trips were often uncomfortable, boring, and stressful for both parents and children. Through the years, I have analyzed the events over and over to try and figure out what my parents could have done to make the drive easier on everyone.

I came up with the top 10 major stresses of traveling with young kids, and through research, practice and application discovered some simple fixes to over come them.

The top 10 major stresses and solutions to overcoming them are:

1. Beating The Boredom

My parents rarely allowed us kids to bring anything that would break up the monotony of a long road trip – therefore leaving us 5 kids to fend for ourselves in the back seat. We resorted to teasing, poking, making faces, and disrupting the overall harmony of the car for miles and miles.

If we had some of the nifty travel toys, and games available on today to beat the boredom on our long road trips from State to State, perhaps we would have been more entertained, and less bored out of our minds, which led to mischief, ultimately causing Dad to yell.

2. Car Entertainment

If you want to fail completely and have a riot break out in your backseat, then never bring any toys, coloring books, games, finger puppets, or even string to play with on your long drive. It will keep the kids miserable, and the car spotless. Wow, that’s a recipe for disaster.

Allowing your kids to bring along simple self contained coloring kits, or hand held games, or even some finger puppets will make such a huge difference in their dispositions while you travel.

As a last resort, we always bring a DVD player with a few new movies the kids haven’t seen for that last 4 hour stretch on a 10 or 12 hour drive. It works like magic.

3. Car Clutter Anxiety

You can have an organized car containing lots of activities, games, toys books and snacks for your kids, while still maintaining car cleanliness as long as everything has its place. My parents had 5 kids which made it a real challenge to keep things clean at our house, so the car was off limits when it came to bringing anything that might cause clutter.

Unfortunately, this system ended up causing some unhappy memories. There are many wonderful car organizers on the market today that hold all kinds of entertainment items, travel games, toys and snacks so that the kids can actually enjoy the journey while still keeping the car clean.

4. Family Interaction

I am not talking about hearing Dad yell, but providing nice family interaction by playing interacting games. Whether the games are about asking questions and learning about each family member, or more along the lines of Dictionary questions, a long road trip is one of those ideal moments to take advantage of with social interaction games.

Provide your kids with some simple rules or directions as to how to play the game and what types of questions to ask, you will have at least an hour of positive interaction time, instead of the other alternative.

5. Taking Breaks

My Dad was quite good at this and we were able to stop pretty often to stretch our legs, have a snack and run around. Car rest stop breaks should be mandatory and scheduled into the drive time. My family tries to pull over every 2 hours and take a break for about 15 minutes.

6. ‘I Have To Go To The Bathroom’

This is going to be a problem for a few years while traveling with little ones. Pulling away from the rest stop with no sign of another rest stop for at least 2 hours then suddenly one of the kids realizes he or she has to go potty. It can literally drive a parent insane unless that parent is armed and ready with a travel potty.

There are some nifty travel potties on the market that are compact, and can be used on the side of the road for those “I have to go now” moments. There is also a urinal with a female adapter that even airplane pilots use because when you have to go, you have to go. I carry both travel potty and travel urinal in our car at all times.

Road trips with kids don't have to be torture for everyone

7. Car Sickness

This is just one of those things that make traveling miserable, whether you’re the sick one, or the parent having to clean it up. If you happen to have a motion-sick little traveler like I do, there are some motion sickness acupressure wrist bands on the market, and it never hurts to have a motion sickness clean up kit with some nice air freshener spray on board. The good news is, most kids grow out of this phase.

8. Discomfort – Back-Ache, Buttock-Ache

Any parent or child is bound to become cranky when he or she starts to ache. Traveling by car for hours and hours is simply going to do that to a persons back, neck, and rear end. That is why those mandatory rest stop breaks are so important.

But if you really want to be prepared, invest in some car seat massage pads, some travel pillows, and some nice spa like products from aroma therapy to lotions to allow each family member a little moment of soothing. It will add on miles of smiles to your drive!

9. Eating Properly

It’s no fun to travel with a tummy ache from all the bad snacks consumed throughout the drive. We have put together a car menu that is equivalent to eating at a health food restaurant and includes healthy snacks like celery with peanut butter, nuts (if you don’t have a peanut allergy of course), fruits, vegetables, as well as breakfast, lunch and dinner entree’s. Since my family lives with severe food allergies, we have made a science out of traveling and cooking on the road (but that’s another article).

10. Car School – Education

Now that you have all your tools in place for a long road trip, you can customize your drive to educate your kids. Think of it, 10 hours on the road and little Sally is learning to speak Latin, or little Johnny is learning about G.A. Henty stories (narrated on Audio books for kids).

If audio books had been available when I was a kid, the backseat fighting problem would have been solved immediately as we all listened and learned while traveling down the road. You can even bring school supplies, and a compact lap desk for when your car school is in session.

Traveling with young children on long road trips can be a stressful, miserable experience if you are not prepared. On the contrary, it can also be a fun, entertaining, and educational experience that leaves lasting happy memories.

You have options as to how you would like it to turn out by taking the time to prepare for your trip. It is possible to have a clean car, and still entertain the kids. I’ve done it successfully and so can you.

Happy Travels!

© Linda Walsh

Linda Walsh is a mother of 3 young children – one with special needs and a forth child on the way. She is also a family travel expert who has developed a unique system for traveling with babies and young kids, budgeting money, cooking from scratch on the road, managing life with special needs, and living an organized lifestyle to get the most miles out of raising her family. If you would like to find more ways to simplify and organize your travels through life with your children, visit her website at Family Travel Gear.

This article may be reproduced with the complete author bio and a live link back to http://www.lovingyourchild.com

Additional resources:

Children’s Activities: Printable Craft & Activity Templates – Encourage your child’s imagination and creativity with the numerous learning experiences, craft activities and coloring templates while enhancing their gross and fine motor skills. Immerse children in real life maths experiences with the many cooking, counting and puzzle activities.
365 Kids Games – 365 surefire ways to keep the kids entertained, every day of the year. Discover the secrets to keeping your kids entertained in a cheap and fun easy way.
Travel, Vacation And Airfare Guides – Expert tips and ebooks for travelers on budget, discount travel, airfares and more. Learn how to travel the world and pay just a fraction of the regular prices on airline tickets, vacation packages, hotel rooms, cruises and more.