Roadtripping with Young Kids

Recently as part of a big family vacation trip, my wife and I spent six days total in the car with our young kids. I wanted to share a few practical tips for how we made it work for our young kids that might help you in future summer vacations!!

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1. Kids will be excited about what you are excited about

This is true for most things in life, but particularly true for HARD things. We spent the week before the trip talking about the exciting adventure we were going to be taking. Mom and Dad don’t have to go to work and we were going on an adventure to a magical place called “Camp duNord.”

We talked about how much fun we would have once we got there, but also at every step along the way.

We would hype up every part of the journey:

• What city are we stopping in tonight?
• Are we staying with family or staying at a hotel?
• Is there a pool at the hotel?
• Will we have waffles for breakfast at the hotel?(Side note: we only stay at hotels that have waffles for breakfast)

2. Take frequent breaks for your kids to get the wiggles out

Your kids are probably used to being able to walk and run around all over the place during their daily life, so being strapped into car seats for hours on end is generally not going to be something they are naturally enthusiastic about.

We generally would try to find a place for lunch that had a playscape inside or a park nearby. We would try to find a place for the kids to play or something fun to do in the cities that we would visit. This would cut down on the boredom.

Generally, we tried to stick to these basic principles for stops.

• At least one stop every 2-2.5 hours for a quick bathroom break
• Kids get out of their car seats at each stop even if they don’t need the break
• At least one LONG break (45-60 minutes) to eat and play – usually over lunch

3. Be strategic about drive times and car activities

Our baby is definitely the most difficult in the car. Mostly because he’s had the least amount of time traveling. He will sleep in his car seat, but only if it’s a time that he would normally be sleeping. So for us, rather than rush to get out on the road each morning, we would take our time and be strategic.

We would eat breakfast together each morning, then we would either go back to the room and play for a while or find something fun for kids somewhere in the town we were in to do for a “morning activity.” In one town we went to a cool “Children’s Museum”, in other places it could just be going to a park to play or riding on the luggage carts to help dad load up the car.

Then, we would aim to get on the road just as the little guy was gearing up for his morning nap. We would give the big kids a quiet activity to do. Books, LCD writing tablets, or even kids’ tablets where they can play certain games or watch episodes of shows we screened and downloaded. Our kids don’t use their tablets much in day-to-day life, but we have them for travel primarily and they work well for filling some of our travel segments, especially while the baby is sleeping.

There are many more tips that I will probably include in future newsletters and podcast episodes, but I know some of you may be thinking about that one last trip before school starts and maybe dreading a road trip like this. I want to encourage you to go for it, especially if it’s important to you and your wife.