Kids & Road Trips — They CAN Go Together!

So you’ve decided to go on a road trip with your whole family? Congratulations! Family road trips can be one of the most wonderful and memorable experiences a family can enjoy together.

Of course, almost everyone has heard those horror stories about what happens on a family road trip — for a wonderfully funny, if grossly exaggerated example, you only have to watch the antics of the Griswald family in the movie National Lampoon. It’s especially difficult if you’re travelling with children, as they generally aren’t inclined to suffer discomfort and boredom with any form of grace. Fortunately, there are many ways to keep them happy and occupied, without letting your own family trip become a real live version of the movie.

Make Sure They’re Comfortable. One of the easiest ways to keep children happy on a long car drive is to make them as comfortable as possible. On hot days, you might want to put up see-through shades on the windows, so the strong sunlight wont be discomforting to the child. On cool days (or when the air conditioning is too much for them), a snug blanket will be a treat.

Letting the child take a favourite toy along can calm many tantrums, though it might be a good idea to specify only soft toys — having one kid hit the other with a plastic Transformer model while you’re driving on the highway is not a soothing experience. Also, make sure to take plenty of rest stops - children are nowhere near as tolerant of long drives as adults, and a rest break every two hours or so can do much to save your sanity.

Many fast food chains offer playrooms and there are always parks and school playgrounds where you and your kids can stretch your limbs. Plus, it gives time for the kids to go to the bathroom and eat a snack. You might also want to carry a training potty for those times when a rest stop isn’t anywhere in sight, and your son insists he needs to go NOW.

At All Costs, Prevent Motion Sickness! There’s really nothing like having a sick child — or two — to turn a pleasant road trip into a nightmare. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to prevent this, or at least mitigate its effects.

• Make sure there’s comfort food available. Some great food for settling queasy tummies are: peppermint candies, ginger snap cookies or gingerbread, fresh water and saltine crackers, lollipops and donuts (plain).

• Place the child in the middle of the backseat so they can see out the front, rather than the sides, which can appear as a blur. Have the child pick a spot as far away as they can see and just focus on that for a few minutes, not the road whizzing by.

• Have the kids wear wrap around sun glasses and wide shady hats, as sometimes the constant sunlight brings on headaches and then motion sickness. You might also consider getting motion sickness relief bands, which are tight wrist bands with a small round metal button that presses into the acupressure point on the inside of each wrist.

• If the child starts feeling nauseous, then tell him to breath deep through the mouth, not nose. This helps distance the unpleasant sensation. Also, try getting them to stick their hand out the window, just a little bit, to help distract them from the queasiness.

• Cooling the body helps take away that 'sick' feeling: a cool cloth on the forehead and an ice pack applied to the back of the neck -- ten minutes on, ten minutes off — can be all that's necessary.

• Bring along large, empty plastic tubs (with their covers) as your road version of an airplane’s ‘motion sickness bag’. After the accident, the tub can be kept covered until the contents are disposed, then cleaned and reused. Keep bottles of air freshener and stain remover in the car to get rid of any lingering smell. Also, keep an extra change of clothing easily available for all travellers and never travel without a large supply of wet wipes!

Naptime For The Kids Is Quiet Time For The Adults. Kids tend to fall asleep easily in a car, making the miles pass by much faster and more peacefully. It might therefore be in your interest to have them sleep through the trip. Putting a light blanket and a comfortable travel pillow (one of each for each child, so they don’t have an excuse to fight) in the car may make it easier to coax them to sleep. You may also want to rent a larger vehicle for the extra space, so each child can stretch out. Make sure you wake the kids up a good time before you reach your destination, as waking them up fully from a comfortable nap can be a long, drawn out procedure.

Keep Them Occupied. There are plenty of games you can buy to keep the children entertained during the drive — Clue, Monopoly and many other classic games come in mini travel versions for just such an occasion. Nowadays, you can also bring along handheld electronic games, which can keep them entertained for hours.

 If you’ve got some cash to spare, you can also equip your car with a games console or a mini television in the back seat. Though expensive, these additions are great ways of maintaining the peace in the car, especially if the parents keep control of the remote.

If you don’t want to buy games, take along crayons, activity sets and toys, and a tray or travel ‘desk’ which hangs from the back of the front seats is handy for any ‘work’ they might want to do. You can have them draw a picture of what you did that day, or draw a map of where you went, and write about it. Or you can bring a book and read out load to them. I Spy is the most common and favourite of all travel games; you can ask them to make up a story, with one person starting, the other picking up the thread and on and on and on.

And Last But Not Least, Bribe Them… Plenty of parenting books have admonished new parents for bribing their children to be quiet, and they probably have a point, but thousands of hassled parents the world over have given in to the temptation just for some peace and quiet. If you’d like to join them, then here’s how.

Give your kids a roll of quarters, or fifty cent pieces, or dollar notes, or however much money you think is right (or they can extract from you): then tell them for every tantrum, or fight, you get back some of the money, and at the end of the trip (or the day), they can keep the remainder.

You can also use surprise gifts, favourite foods or even a trip to an amusement park for these nefarious purposes. Even if Dr Benjamin Spock disapproves, it may just be the only way you can survive the trip with your sanity intact.

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First published 31 January 2005. This article is free for personal and commercial reproduction, with the following terms and conditions.