Family Friendly Road Trip 101

Road trips: Plenty of movies had been made about the lovely journeys with friends. But real life doesn’t always mimic the movies. To help plan a road trip, I’ve come up with a list of things you need to do to make your road trip more family friendly.

There are road trips where the journey is the fun. Then there are road trips where you have to drive all day for a day or two (or three) to get to your destination. These tips are for that scenario: You’re strapped for time and you need to get to a place far away with few stops.

Family Friendly Road Trip 101

• Make sure you’ve had your car looked over before you head on a road trip. Good tires, no check engine light, all those are important.
• Fill up on gas the night before, and put any luggage in the car the night before. The goal of the morning is to get up and go.
• Start your trip before the butt crack of dawn. Yes, leave while you’re kids are still sleeping, get them to go potty, keep the lights low and let them keep sleeping. If your kids are still in diapers, DING DING DING, you have a winner. Get them in their carseats and drive until breakfast. The benefit of this is that there are fewer cars on the road, you can drive and drive and make your first stop as a pee/gas/breakfast break.
• Have a picnic or drive thru food at a park for your mid-day meal. If you can do a mid-morning snack and have lunch in the later afternoon, get the wiggles out, and get fresh air at the same time. Then, an afternoon bathroom and gas pitstop, and then you may be able to drive until your hotel and grab dinner at your night destination.
• Markers and stickers go over well, but they can be messy. Opt for washable crafts, journals, and {gasp} electronics. Have a built in DVD player or only one electronic device that lasts long? Plan the entertainment schedule in advance. To prevent fights, have the DVD line up set in advance of the trip so there’s no screaming matches while you’re driving 75 on the freeway.
• Pack wipes and a backup set of clothes. Keep those clothes accessible and in their own gallon ziptop bags – then if you need to change clothes you have a way to keep dirty clothes from stinking up the place.
• Create incentives with a $.25 jar. Give everyone $5 in quarters. Whoever complains, whines, or otherwise has a meltdown has to give up a quarter. Whoever has the most money remaining at the end of the trip gets the jar!

When it comes to road trips, even when you need to drive all day, the JOURNEY is part of the trip and is part of life. Don’t give up on making memories just because you’re sandwiched in a car all day. Sing songs, play i-spy, make a road trip bingo game. Just make memories!