Holiday travel can be an exciting time for any family. It can also be very trying when you have the children couped up in the car and at odds with one another. These tips will help you to take some of the edge of your car travel off of your holiday plan.
Rest Stops
Everyone has been in the car with a driver that refuses to stop and prefers to drive straight through. Don’t be that driver. The trip will be a lot more enjoyable for all involved if you stop at the rest area. Children will be able to stretch their legs and use the facility.
Be Prepared
Be prepared for anything. Have extra blankets and snacks on hand. Have some water as well. Traffic can easily slow to a halt due to a wreck or inclement weather.
Snacks
Have plenty of healthy snacks on hand for hungry children. Every parent’s heard “Mom I’m starving”. The starving child usually drags out the word mom and sounds very convincing. Having these snacks on hand will help the parents to survive the trip as well as the children.
Travel Stages
Plan your travel in short stages. Perhaps the trip can be done in a few days stopping by an relatives house en-route to the destination. This helps prevent a lot of stress on the family.
Travel Time
Consider traveling when children are fairly quiet. Get them up earlier than usual and let them sleep part of the way. This can really buy some peace and quiet for harried parents.
Travel Games
Have some travel games in mind. Play cribbage with license plate numbers, play the license plate state game, assign each child a car color and play for an hour and see who has the most cars. Play packing your bag for a trip and have each child add a new item to the bag repeating what the previous child has added.
Stop at The Park
If you’re stopping for lunch consider getting it to go and having a picnic at the park. Yes, it might be snowing, but the kids won’t mind and they’ll be ready to get back in the warm car and travel some more after lunch.
Electronics
Consider bringing movies and a portable DVD player for the back seat. Make it a movie that your child has been anxious to see and you have an instant winner.
These tips should help your travel time with your children to be more enjoyable. Remember, one day these will all be treasured memories.