“Muuumm! He’s got my book! I had it first!”
“No, you didn’t! I was reading it!” With a sigh, I turned around to intervene before the squabble got out of hand. Road trips with kids, I thought. Survival of the deafest.
Peace descended, but it wasn’t for long. A squeal erupted somewhere near my shoulder.
“She poked me! And it really hurts!”
“Stop it, you two! Just ignore each other!” It was good advice, but it didn’t last. It wasn’t long before they were annoying each other again, the product of a long road trip, too many late nights, and boredom after being in the car all day.
Road Trips With Kids: Parental Dread Dead Ahead
When you ask a parent about a long road trip with kids, you can see the dread beginning to build. Road trips with kids are sheer hard work sometimes, especially with young children who are not used to travelling. And to be fair, young children must find it very boring and frustrating to sit still for long periods of time, unable to run around or even move a lot.
So is there anything you can do to turn the parental dread of a road trip with kids into something, well … less dreadful?
Road Trips With Kids Can Be Fun
Believe it or not, you can have fun on road trips with kids. There are countless ways of amusing the entire family while you are travelling, but check out these ideas to get you started.
- Play a game of “I’m thinking of … ” Similar to I Spy, this game instead relies on the person who’s “in” thinking of a word, place, food, animal etc that begins with a certain letter of the alphabet. Other family members can ask questions until someone gets it, and then it’s their turn.
- Pack an activity bag for each child containing colouring pencils, sticker books, games and small toys. When the party gets too raucous, hand out the bags and allow each child to explore it at their leisure. You’re guaranteed to get about three minutes’ peace before someone needs to go to the toilet.
- Plan regular stops. You can encourage young children with the wiggles that you will be getting out of the car soon, and older kids will also appreciate knowing how long it is till the next stop.
- Pack your own food and snacks rather than buying them. It will save you money and has the advantage of being able to hand out food to the hungry hordes when they need feeding rather than having to wait until you can find somewhere to stop.
- Create a list of things for kids to find along the way, and assign each one a point value. Make some of them easy ones such as road signs, and some more difficult (and therefore worth more points) such as specific animals or people performing certain tasks. Award small prizes such as a snack when they reach a designated number of points. It will keep them engaged as they look for the items on their lists and add up their points and they will have less motivation for squabbles.
Road Trips With Kids Can Be Fun For You Too
You’re probably worn out from the last minute rush of packing and getting ready to leave and the last thing you feel like doing is playing games and entertaining kids. But it’s helpful to remember that the journey is part of the destination when it comes to making memories. Your kids will remember long road trips too – what are their memories going to look like? A boring experience that they hated, or something fun that they will remember fondly?
So if you can drag yourself away from the desire to fall in a heap once you’re in the car, you might find that having fun with the kids while you travel can actually be energizing. And in years to come you too will have good memories of the times you spent together on the road. It all comes down to how you see it.
For more ideas for fun road trips with kids, check out the following links:
http://www.kidspot.com.au/21-road-trip-activities/
http://www.mantra.com.au/blog/postid/638/top-5-activities-for-families-mantra-on-salt-beach/