How to Make Road Trips with Kids Enjoyable for All

Guest Blog #202, Entry #691, October 6, 2011

Now that the holidays are around the corner, family road trips are inevitable. I remember making the long 3 day car ride from Colorado to Philadelphia, PA every holiday season, and my parents had activities galore in the car!

My Guest Blogger recalls their most recent family roadtrip, and the activities they did to keep their kids busy.

Get ready to hit the road with your family

Image courtesy of Wallpaper Passion

It was during the summer holidays that my husband suggested that we go traveling to France, I was delighted. That was until he said we would be driving there, my heart sank, driving over 500 miles with two young children and a cat is something any sensible parent would avoid like the plague.

I fought bravely suggesting flights or even rail anything but driving. My husband appealed back attacking my weak but sweet mothering nature, “it will bring us closer together”, “it will create real memories” and “it will be fun” he pleaded. I agreed with his first two points although for entirely different reasons but his third argument “it will be fun” was just absurd and verging on crazy.

I truly envisioned that we wouldn’t get over 100 miles before my husband was contemplating tying the rascals to the roof rack. My forewarnings fell on death ears and we began our journey. Fortunately our car is very family friendly with enough space to literally swing a cat, thankfully Smudge’s cage was firmly secured otherwise the kids may have put the theory to the test.

Make your next family road trip enjoyable

Image courtesy of Pure Citrus

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at how well the kids were behaving, we had now traveled over 100 miles and I’d witnessed only a couple of minor tantrums, three bags of sweets ransacked and one toilet stop (for me). I began to doubt if these were my kids, I was in unfamiliar territory, a happy functioning family, it felt wrong. The only thing getting on my nerves was the repetitive drone of the sat nav, I came close to hurling it out of the window on a few occasions.

We’d now reached over 200 miles (just outside Paris) and the kids were fast asleep, we were feeling heavy eyed ourselves and decided to make a short stop. Topped up on Red Bull and Caffeine we continued on our journey, we were behind on time which meant we weren’t able to fully digest the beautiful backdrop along our route.

It was around the 400 mile mark that the kids woke up, the whine of the sat nav had now been replaced with cries of “are we there yet?” every mile or so. We had just under 200 miles to go, it was going to be painful. The kids were becoming fidgety and restless I attempted to cool the situation by suggesting we play some in car games, these went down a treat. Some of the games we played included:

Plan out what your kids will do on the trip in advance

Image courtesy of Holiday Deal Compare

• The Number Plate Game

Play scrabble with car number plates, for example a plate ending with “BNS” might produce “Bins”, “Buns” or even “Bananas”. The letters must be in chronological order as they appear on the number plate.

• Animal Count

This is a favourite among kids, the game is pretty simple you count the animals you spot along your journey and the first to reach a set milestone is the winner. The best mechanism of this game is that it can last a very long time.

• I Spy With My Little Eye

This game is a classic and has been passed down generation to generation. The game is straight forward one person starts by choosing an object (a horse, for example) and says “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with “H”. The others in the car must guess what the object is such as a “Horn” or “Hairbrush. If the object is out of the sight the player must say so.

The in-car games certainly calmed the atmosphere in the car and dare I say it even made it “fun”. Family holidays are supposed to create memories that last, so you could argue that the outbound journey had been a roaring success. Putting the journey behind us was easier than I thought we soon settled into holiday mode and had the best 9 days as a family ever. However the return the leg was always at the back of our minds, it went a lot like the outbound leg, except this time I planned all the activities before hand it certainly made my life easier.

If I could offer one tip for anybody planning a long trip with children it would be to plan everything, every little detail, even the games you intend to play.

For more family ideas on Stagetecture, click here.