Surviving a Road Trip with Kids

“Are we there yet?” “When are we going to be there?”  “Are we almost there?” “How many more hours?”  "He's on my side!" These and a variety of other ways to ask these same questions are usually what we hear on a road trip with children. In my experience, we aren’t even out of the city yet and the questions begin.

When I was a kid, there were no portable DVD players, cars with DVD players in them, or smartphones. If you were lucky you had a Walkman. (On a side note, Walkman’s are still around! Check out The History of the Walkman: 35 years of iconic musicplayers).Other than that, we played I Spy, Slug Bug, or who could annoy the other sibling the fastest.  That never ended well.

So in our modern day, fast paced world, what is a kid to do on a long road trip? The possibilities are endless, right? Even with all the choices, do you still get the, “I’m bored…”  “Are we there yet…?” Yeah… me too. Well, here are a handful of ideas that hopefully will help pass the time and not make you lose your mind on a road trip with the kids:

1.      Invest in a portable DVD player

If your vehicle doesn’t already have one, it’s worth the money to purchase one.  I’ve seen them priced from $50 on up. You can also load movies onto a tablet or smartphone and have them watch movies on those as well.

2.      Load games to a tablet or smartphone

In my experience, that will keep my kids quiet for quite some time.

3.      Play car games

I do like my kids and I don’t want to necessarily keep them quiet the entire trip. Here are a few ‘classic car games’ that even you can join in on:

·        I Spy – ‘I spy with my little eye, something…’ That was one we played on road trips. Someone finds inside the car and gives everyone a clue (color, letter, texture). The others playing have to guess what the object is.

·        The Alphabet Game – The object of this game is to go through the alphabet using road signs or something in the car that begins with the letter that falls on your turn.

·        The License Plate Game- There are a few different ways you can play it.

o   Look for license plates from different states

o   Take the letters from the license plate and name a celebrity with those letters (JF = Jimmy Fallon).

o   Take the letters from the license plate and make phrases out of them (BEO = Big Elk Outside).

·        Celebrity Name Game – How this game works is the first person to go picks a celebrity’s first and last name. The next person has to take the first letter of that celebrity’s last name and name another celebrity with it. Did I confuse you yet? It’s a little difficult to explain but here’s an example: First player names Julia Roberts. The next player would us the ‘R’ in Roberts and chose another celebrity – Ryan Reynolds. In a situation where the celebrity’s first and last names start with the same letter (and there are more than 2 players playing), the turn reverses back to the ‘Julia Roberts’ player. This game can go for hours!

4.      Bring board games that are car-friendly

Playing cards in a car can be tough but it’s doable. There are car-friendly games you can buy like Battleship and Checkers.  Though it’s not a board game, there is an app called Heads Up.  That’s a good time, too.

5.      Have story time

Even if you have older kids that don’t care about ‘story time’.  If doesn’t have to be about fairytale’s and dragons.  Tell them your stories (maybe not all of them…). Road trips can be a great time to tell stories, catch up and find out more about your kids and vice versa.  We all have busy schedules and may not always have time to just sit and talk to our kids. What better setting than to trap them in a car and chat away.

So, with summer vacation in full swing for the kids, I hope a few of these help to keep you as sane as possible on road trips and keep the craziness in the backseat to a minimum.

Safe travels every one!