Kids and Travel: Road Trip Survival Tips

The thought of a road trip can strike fear in the hearts of many parents with kids of any age. Even with today's comfortable vehicles, complete with built-in DVD players, the thought of the question, "Are we there yet?" being asked throughout the entire trip makes parents cringe. Add in the fear of travel for a full day or two in a moving vehicle with limited space and seemingly endless requests for food or bathroom stops, and you can understand why a lot of people run for the computer to book airline tickets online.

How did parents from a generation ago survive such trips without the modern conveniences of today? Being a parent of three grown children, I'm living proof that it is possible. We took many road trips with our crew over the years. I can honestly say that some of the trips were actually somewhat of a family bonding experience. Here's how we survived.

Bag of treats
Fill a backpack or other bag with special treats. These can be books, stickers, word search games for older kids or small toys you might find at your local Dollar Store. Also, put some food treats in the bag. Try not to get sugary snacks. The last thing you need is a vehicle filled with kids on a sugar rush. Small snack crackers like Cheez-Its or Ritz Bits are good because kids can easily pop them in their mouths and not make too much of a mess with crumbs. Every 50 miles or so, give the kids something special from the "treat bag."

Road Trip Games
If you have a DVD player, turn it off once in a while. If all the passengers have headsets on and are too quiet, you run the risk of the driver nodding off and running off the road. Car games can keep your kids occupied and get everyone involved. Here are some great ones to try.

ABC Game #1
The first person to see the letter "A" in a road sign (not on license plates) yells out "A". Then you look for a "B" in a road sign and so on throughout the entire alphabet. A few of the letters are more difficult, so make sure you aren't playing this in the middle of nowhere or you may never find a "Q". (Hint: La Quinta and Quality Inns are some of the few places you'll spot a "Q".)

ABC Game #2
You start with the letter "A" and say a name beginning with "A", another name beginning with "A" which will be your friend's name, a place beginning with "A" and an item that you could carry in a basket that starts with "A".

Example: "A, my name is Annie and my friend's name is Andy. We come from Alabama with a basket full of apples." (You can substitute mother, father, brother, sister, husband or wife for the word friend.)

Continue on with each letter of the alphabet. Some of the letters are a bit tough, but see how far you can get.

License Plate Game
Look for out of state license plates and see how many you can spot. You can make this a little harder for older kids by seeing if they can name the state capital for each state plate they spot. You might also have them name a well known fact or scenic place related to each state plate they see.

Movie Quote Game
Since kids watch movies over and over again, they are able to repeat quotes from them. Have someone say a quote from a movie. The first person to name the movie that is being quoted gets to give a quote next.

These road trip games can be fun and actually can be a family bonding experience.

Quiet Time
If your kids are younger, you might try to get them to take a short nap. Be sure to have a couple of pillows in the car and a small blanket or two if possible.

Bribery
If all else fails, try bribery. One of the best road survival tips I heard many years ago was to give each child, a roll of nickels. I started using this tip about 20 years ago, so now you might want to give each child a roll of dimes or quarters. Warn the kids beforehand that each time they ask the dreaded question, "Are we there yet?", the child who asked will be charged one coin. Decide what other behaviors might cost them a coin. For us, it was bickering, hitting, and as they got older, bad language.

When you reach your destination, they get to keep the money they have left to spend on a souvenir or some other type of treat.

Be sure to give them another roll of coins on your trip back home.

Have Fun
Try to enjoy the time with your family. You may look back on road trips fondly when they are grown up.

We took our final family road trip when our daughter was 20 and our twin boys were 18. We actually played some of the above games and we even gave each of them a roll of coins for old time's sake. They laughed and about two hours into the trip we heard the words, "Are we there yet?".