Single Dad’s Ultimate Survival Guide to Road Trips with Kids

Summer is here and it is time to pack up the kids for that epic road trip. Here’s how to arrive without meltdowns and keep everyone’s sanity.

Ok, so I recently posted about what to pack for car camping with kids and I now find myself planning a road trip that while visiting several campgrounds, doesn’t involve much traditional camping. What could I possibly have in mind? An RV trip. Yup. I’m going to load the kids up for a week and hit the road in a Minnie Winnie 31K to explore the wonders of the Shenandoah region.

I may be shouting into the wind here, and the lone purveyor of the idea that kids don’t need electronic distractions to make it a 1/2 drive to the store, but I am sticking to it. In the modern age of instant gratification, my kids get no screens. That isn’t entirely true. They have iPads at school for their classwork, but during my time with the kids, we are a no screens family.

How to Entertain Kids on a Road Trip.

• Build in breaks
  • My kids have a distance tolerance of about 6 hours in the car. It is generally 4-5 to their grandparent’s house, and they do pretty well on that drive. Anything more than 6 hours is going to involve a hard stop, get out of the car for at least an hour type destination.
  • Plan a visit to a park, recreational area, any place that they can run around and shake off the car jitters.
• Audio Books
  • My kids love to read, and will do so on their own pretty well, thankfully without getting car sick. Audio books however are a lot of fun. They get the whole family involved in the story, and aid conversation between chapters and after the book is over.
  • Make sure that you grab a couple. That Tolkien adventure that you took as a kid may turn out to be a lot darker than you remembered it.
• Special Snacks
  • This is actually pretty important. We all love good snacks while driving. And stopping for food on the road can be a huge waste of time and energy in places that we are not familiar with. It is also pretty expensive. So packing something that the kids don’t get to have often and will be excited about goes a long way.
  • And try to envision the mess. Some foods lend themselves to being car snacks better than others.
• Avoid Traffic
  • Plan it out. Timing is everything. The drive to my mother’s can be anywhere from 4 to 7 hours depending on the time of day, and nothing makes for a more miserable road trip than being stuck in traffic.
  • Plan your stops to avoid it if you can. 2 hours in the park playing is much better than spending that time in traffic, and you probably won’t lose a lot of time by stopping somewhere during rush hour.
• Be Willing to Play Along
  • I know this can be a tough one. But an hour or so playing “eye spy” or some other car game can really take the edge off of their attention needs.
  • There are a variety of question/answer card games out there. If your kids aren’t quite ready for Trivia Pursuit, grab a Disney themed or age appropriate knock off. It can actually be a lot of fun. and no, you don’t need the board. Just have everyone pick a category when it is their turn. Whether to keep score is your decision.

My Essential Packing List

• Entertainment Needs
  • Clearly anything needed above will be key. Snacks, books, games, etc.
• Less Clothes than you initially want to pack.
  • This is actually pretty important for a successful road trip. It is easy to overpack and end up wasting space with unneeded items, and having a pile of things that you never used needing to be washed anyway.
  • 1 Swimsuit/kid: rinse it off and hang it up every day if you need to. If you bring more you will end up with a pile of wet swimsuits tucked away and not hung up to dry. Given the option kids will always grab a new one.
    • Unless you are going to fully embrace swim trunks as the only pants packed, in that case, bring two.
  • Shoes that don’t require socks: if the climate allows, this will make your life much easier. Otherwise, extra socks. This is the one thing you will need to change every day.
  • Quick dry fabrics that you can give a quick rinse and hang up to dry at night. Plan to not have laundry accessible and pick a few things that go well with each other in various combinations.
  • Long pants and a sweatshirt for everyone, even if you are going tropical. Bonus points for quick drying and/or fabrics that will keep you warm even when wet.
• Flashlight with spare batteries
• First Aid Kit
  • Basic with bandaids and anti-itch cream
• Superglue
  • I just used some to glue my daughter’s glasses back together, it’s important.
• Music
• Books (for everyone, not just the kids)

Hacks

• Flavored Seltzer
  • If your kids will drink it, it’s an easy way to have some prepackaged hydration without any sugar. And if they spill it, it’s not an issue.
• Surprises
  • Keep some snacks or games that your kids will be excited about secret. Then when they are just about to get past their endurance point, you can pull something out to lift them up in the midst of your road trip. And, they won’t have been bugging you asking about it for hours.
• Have a trash bag
  • If you want to get super cutesy and put small garbage bags in cereal boxes mounted behind the center console, you do you. I’ll stick with an empty grocery bag hanging off of the head rest, but you need to have one, or your car will become a dumpster before the first six hours are up.
• Luggage barriers
  • My kids like to poke at each other, so I put something between them that makes it difficult, but also something that they can’t topple over onto each other.
• Seat back pockets
  • Most cars have them, but if yours doesn’t, get a hanging one. This will keep book off of the floor.
  • Also, clean it out. My kids jam things in their daily, and we don’t need to be carting around the rocks they picked up in a library parking lot two months ago…

How to Survive Road Trip Boredom

There is typically going to be a lot of time between activities on a road trip. So how are you going to stretch it all out? It’s unlikely that any one of your entertainment plans will cover the entire time in the car. And even if you have a good audio book on, 12 straight hours of the same voice reading on and on might start to drive you a little batty.

• Change things up
  • Take a break from the book for a game, or some music. Any one thing is going to get old after a while, but if you switch every hour or so, everyone will be less bored and cranky.
• Build activities into your break stops
  • Play a quick game of frisbee golf in the park
  • work a short hike in
  • Fly kites
• pick up a local tourism board map and have the kids try to find things on it when you start driving again.
• Try writing a story as a family, where you pass off the tale to each other after a paragraph or so.
• Take those breaks. This is important, don’t wait until everyone is losing their minds.

How to Arrive before Meltdowns

• Don’t go too far in a jump.
  • This is different for each family. My kids are good for 4-6 hours in a mode of transportation. Changing between cars, trains, planes, etc helps, but don’t expect a total reset. After 12-16 hours of total travel, that last car ride home might push them over the edge.
• Keep everyone fed and hydrated
  • Everyone’s limits will be pushed harder if they haven’t had enough water, even if they don’t think that they are thirsty.
• Keep it together
  • Yes, you. If you start fraying and snapping at them, it is all going to come crashing down in short order. So, against all adversity, you have to not lose your cool. Most likely you planned this adventure, so make sure you plan it so that you can.

If you enjoyed these travel tips, or any other post on Real Life with Dad,  be sure to follow us on FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram  @RealLifeWithDad for our next adventure!