How to Avoid the Top 10 Road Trip Stresses While Traveling With Kids

Growing up in a family group of 5 kids, it seemed that my poor Dad yelled at us a whole lot while we were on long road trips. I can blame most of it on my older brother who seemed to enjoy instigating in the automobile (yeah Johnny, What i'm saying is you!). The fact of the problem was, our long road trips were often uncomfortable, boring, and stressful for both parents and children. Over time, I've analyzed the events again and again to try and find out what my parents may have done to make the drive easier on everyone. I came up with the top 10 major stresses of traveling with small children, and through research, practice and application discovered some simple fixes to overcome them.

Top 10 major stresses and answers to over coming them are:

1. Beating the boredom - My parents rarely allowed us kids to create anything that would split up the monotony of a long road trip - therefore leaving us 5 kids to fend for ourselves in the trunk seat. We resorted to teasing, poking, making faces, and disrupting the overall harmony of the car for miles and miles. If we'd a few of the nifty travel toys, and games available on today to beat the boredom on our long road trips from State to State, perhaps we would have been more entertained, and less bored out of our minds that leads to mischief, ultimately causing Dad to yell.

2. Car entertainment - If you want to fail completely and also have a riot use in your backseat, then never bring any toys, coloring books, games, finger puppets, and even string to play with on your own long drive. It will keep the kids miserable, and the car spotless. Wow, that is clearly a recipe for disaster. Allowing your children to create along simple self contained coloring kits, or handheld games, as well as some finger puppets will make such a huge difference in their dispositions when you travel. As a final resort, we always bring a DVD player with several new movies the kids haven't seen for that last 4 hour stretch on a 10 or 12 hour drive. I works as promised.

3. Car clutter anxiety - You might have an organized car containing lots of activities, games, toys books and snacks for the kids, while still maintaining car cleanliness as long as everything has it's place. My parents had 5 kids which managed to get a real challenge to help keep things clean at the house, therefore the car was off limits when it came to bringing anything that may cause clutter. Unfortunately, this system ended up causing some unhappy memories. There are several wonderful car organizers available today that hold all kinds of entertainment items, travel games, toys and snacks in order that the kids can actually benefit from the journey while still keeping the automobile clean.

4. Family interaction - I am not discussing hearing Dad yell, but providing nice family interaction by playing interacting games. If the games are about asking questions and studying each family member, or more such as Dictionary questions, a long road trip is one of those ideal moments to take advantage of with social interaction games. Provide your children with some simple rules or directions as to how to play the game and what types of questions to ask, you will have at least an hour of positive interaction time, rather than the other alternative.

5. Taking breaks - My Dad was quite proficient at this and we were able to stop pretty often to stretch our legs, have a snack and run around. Car rest stop breaks ought to be mandatory and scheduled in to the drive time. My children tries to pull over every 2 hours and take a break for approximately 15 minutes.

6. I have to visit the bathroom - This is going to be considered a problem for a couple years while traveling with little ones. Pulling away from the rest stop with no sign of another rest stop for at the very least 2 hours then suddenly one of the kids realizes she or he must go potty. It could literally drive a parent insane unless that parent is armed and ready with a travel potty. There are some nifty travel potties available that are compact, and may be used on the side of the road for all those "I must go now" moments. There is also a urinal with a female adapter that even airplane pilots use since when you must go, you will need to go. I carry both travel potty and travel urinal in our car at all times.

7. Car sick - This is just one of those ideas that produce traveling miserable, whether your the sick one, or the parent having to clean it up. If however you have a motion sick little traveler like I do, there are a few motion sickness acupressure wrist bands on the market, and it never hurts to possess a motion sickness clean up kit with some nice air freshener spray on board. The good news is, most kids grow out of this phase.

8. Discomfort - back ache, buttock ache - Any parent or child will become cranky when she or he starts to ache. Traveling by car for hours and hours is simply going to do that to an individuals back, neck, and tail. This is why those mandatory rest stop breaks are so important. But in the event that you really want to prepare yourself, invest in some carseat massage pads, some travel pillows, and some nice spa like products from aroma therapy to lotions to permit each family member just a little moment of soothing. It'll increase miles of smiles to your drive!

9. Eating proper - It's no fun to travel with a tummy ache from all of the bad snacks consumed throughout the drive. We have come up with a car menu that is equal to eating at a health food restaurant and includes healthy snacks like celery with peanut butter, nuts (unless you have a peanut allergy needless to say), fruits, vegetables, and breakfast, lunch and dinner entree's. Since my family lives with severe food allergies, we have made a science out of traveling and cooking on the highway (but that's another article).

10. Car school - education - Now that you have all your tools in place for a long road trip, it is possible to customize your drive to teach your kids. Think of it, 10 hours on the highway and little Sally is understanding how to speak Latin, or little Johnny is studying G.A. Henty stories (narrated on Audiobooks for kids). If audiobooks had been available when I was a youngster, the backseat fighting problem would have been solved immediately as we all listened and learned while traveling down the road. You may also bring school supplies, and a concise lap desk for when your car school is in session.

Traveling with young children on long road trips could be a stressful, miserable experience if you are not prepared. On the contrary, it can also be a great, entertaining, and educational experience that leaves lasting happy memories. You have options concerning how you would like it to turn out by taking the time to prepare for your trip. It is possible to have a clean car, and still entertain the kids. I've done it successfully and so can you.

Happy Travels!

Linda Walsh is a mother of 3 young children - one with special needs and a forth child along the way. She is also a family travel expert who has developed a unique system for traveling with babies and young kids, budgeting money, cooking from scratch on the highway, managing life with special needs, and living an organized lifestyle to obtain the most miles out of raising her family. If you want to find more methods to simplify and organize your travels through life with your children, visit her website at