Vacations and road trips are key memories when most people look back at their growing-up life. But, road tripping with children can be intimidating and mentally exhausting. Come listen in and get some tips for road trips with kids! We touch on all sorts of topics, from snacks to engaging games to how to create bits of quiet time for the parent's wellbeing.
Reach out to us and give us some of your tips and tricks as well!
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Hilary: Welcome to the Parents Place podcast. I'm Hilary
Jen: And I'm Jen,
Hilary: And we're excited to have you guys with us today. So I know that some of you are active listeners who are hearing our podcast every week, which, by the way, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Others of you are a little less frequent listeners still solid. Thank you for you guys as well, too. But if you follow us regularly, you know that for our area, at least it's spring break next week and which means for a lot of families picking up and going somewhere and potentially spending a short period or a very long period in the car. And so, my family, we are heading down to the south end of Utah to probably see Utah people know as the mecca of vacations, and that is St. George, right and everyone goes to St. George.
Jen: (Laughter) That’s the mecca of vacations? Nay Nay.
Hilary: Well You know, we’re Utah. What am I going to do? The unfortunate thing is everyone goes to St. George, so that's about as, as Mecca as we get here, isn't it? So, we're talking for us like five, six-hour drive.
Jen: Depending on how many potty breaks
Hilary: And how fast my husband decides to drive. So, in my head, I'm preparing myself. I need all the tips, the tips for how to keep my children entertained for that long, how what to do to have them not drive me bananas so that we will take another trip in the future, right? I don't want this to ruin us.
Jen: Well, I think even if it's not your spring break, vacation time is just around the corner. I mean. I think more people, even though gas prices are crazy, I think more people will be driving than flying because I've heard airline prices are going crazy too, just because of the gas. So hopefully we'll all be able to take vacations because past few years we haven't really take a vacation.
Hilary: Now finally have a chance if we can't afford it. So, I'll tell you, I'm starting to enter this, I'll call it a sweet spot. But the sweet spot with my children, where they're starting to get a little bit older and they're starting to take a little bit less to be entertained. But I have noticed the past few times that it's easy for me to hand them a phone or an iPad or some type of device and to have them zone out for, a few minutes to, c
an I say an hour's worth? Right? Which as a parent who's driving in the car, sometimes we need that right in order to maintain our sanity. But other times we'll be driving and we'll get to where we need to go. And I'm thinking to myself, we did it, but I don't know if I said anything to my children that whole four-hour drive, and that's probably not a deal, either. So, I want to have a good mix of, you know, we'll bring the devices because realistically, they're real, nice to have and they can be a sanity saver. But I also want to try to do some things to not actually engage with one another, right?
Jen: Yeah Connect
Hilary: So, I'll ask you, Jan., what's, what's your opinion on? How are you? Are you a long road driver? Do you enjoy, you know, road trips?
Jen: Yeah. In May, we're going to California, and that's a good 12-hour drive. Well, 10. I guess we're a little heavy on the gas pedal. 10. So I do enjoy road trips. I'm not a big device person during that time. It's more of but it's just me. Like when I've gone on little road trips with my like day trips with my stepdaughter. It's her in control of the radio and she is happy as a clam with that. So, if we can get her radio connected to the car and she picks out all the music, she is happy and she will sing her a little heart out for the entire drive. And I like that because then I know, as my husband always says, when she is singing, we know she's happy. And so that's the way we handle it with her. Or even during that time of picking music, she is rolling through everything. But there is conversations that's probably where we have our best conversations is in the car. Yeah, I like a mixture of things because yes, the devices are nice. We just need, there's been enough craziness going on. I need just silence.
Hilary: (Laughter) Oh Yes.
Jen: And so, would you do me those? But I do like a mixture. I don't know if that answered your question, but that's what I like.
Hilary: No, no, I think it's good. I know in general, I'm usually a fan of road trips. I mean, I'll be honest, they're not my most favorite thing with the three-year-old, but there's still the potential to be fun. So, it's funny because I've learned over the years, especially now that I have a little ones, you know, that I have a big family and we've we vacation a lot quite often. And so, when we're together and I think this is maybe a good tip for individuals to have, oftentimes we would attempt to do the giant caravan, right? Everybody leave at the same time, we'll make the same stops. We'll eat lunch together. Eventually, we'll make it to our end result.
Jen: That is what I don't like about traveling. I hate caravans.
Hilary: I had to learn after a few years and a few very unfortunate situations that if you are traveling with little ones, you have just got to keep. You've got to be flexible enough to recognize that we may not always stick to a schedule. We may not stop at every place that everybody else is stopping at. But that is fine
Jen: Because sometimes you're in a good spot, your sweet spot of driving. They may be in naps
Hilary: Oh yes
Jen: And you don't stop driving when there's a nap
Hilary: We never wake up napping children in the car like, honestly, that is the worst of the worst. And so, yes, I've been with my family where unfortunately we've called them up and they're all planning on stopping for lunch. And I'm like, Well, we've got a sleeping child, so we are still going because you’re right. You've got to be flexible enough that you take the stops when needs be. But if you don't have to take the stop, the don't take the stop.
Jen: You do always have that one family member that's like, Nope, I've got to be in the front and I got to be in the front all the time. Don't you dare drive past me. So that's why I don't like caravans. It’s just too much of a hassle.
Hilary: Yes. But yes, for these little ones, I think it's okay to in your head, maybe make some maybe have an idea of where you want to stop. We're going to do you know around this town for lunch? Maybe we'll stop at ice cream at this site, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Maybe you take your breaks when you need to, and sometimes you'll get to a spot where you had planned on stopping. But if the kids are great, I would say just keep on going. Yeah, there's no reason to make an unnecessary stop just to please those in your line, those in your group. So that's tip number one for me that I have learned over the years. Yeah. And you know, if it causes some hurt feelings amongst the family members, that's OK with me because the reality is they're not driving with your kids in your car. So you got to please those words in your car.
Jen: And if they would like to stop more often, you can say you're more than welcome to take my children and you can stop as often as you know. But now sometimes people forget what it's like to have a little kids in their car, and they just assume that everyone can do the same thing. And that's not the case.
Hilary: I've also been in those caravans where they have said, we are not stopping at all, right? So, you sleep in the car, you eat your lunch in the car. Here's a water bottle if needs be right because we're not stopping for any purpose and I'm like, Oh heavens, well that that cannot be the case for us.
Jen: Yes, I am a little bit that that way, unless you're you've got to go potty really bad. We're not stopping. We don't stop for food. We go through a drive through and we keep on going because normally my trips are those 10 hour trips, and I don't like taking the 10 hour into a 12 hour just to do so
Hilary: But you’ll let me stop for a potty break, though right?
Jen: I will let you stop
Hilary: I don’t have to us the water bottle?
Jen: No, no, no. No one wants that.
Hilary: Ok good! Phew! So, let's talk snacks like tips, techniques for like the snacks in the car. Because I go back and forth between, I've got to buy all the things at the store, right? I mean, isn't a road trip the best time to buy all the snacks that you would never, ever buy otherwise? But then I have this constant fear of if I shovel those snacks in my children's mouth, they're going to come back up at some point.
Jen: That would be higher than a kite
Hilary: (Laughter) Yes!
Jen: Because it's mostly the sugar stuff.
Hilary: Yes. Oh, it usually has for us in our car. Definitely. So, then I'm always fearful of without being too much because I get carsick. Like, worst case scenario, right?
Jen: The way that I've done it in the past is I’m always going around like gas. Gas fill up to gas fill up. Like I don't buy them all. And I know that's a little bit more expensive because you're buying them at the gas station. But to me, it's like I buy less and I make it last because I know I have to go to the next gas station and then I can buy myself another treat. Yeah, so that's how I normally do it. It may be, I don't know. I'm just trying to think, do I end up spending more or less like if I would buy it all at one time versus, Oh, I need some, because jaw breakers are the one thing that will help me stay awake as I'm driving. So. If I bought all that at once or if I just bought them at the gas station. Where do you spend more money?
Hilary: I don't know. It'd be interesting to see. I love giving my children free reign at the gas station to see what snacks they get because gas station snacks range from anything to the sun. And sometimes I’m like, Oh, you're going to pick that giant pickle. Good for you. We'll see how that goes later tonight. So, isn't that experience right? So, one thing that I've done so especially with when my kids were really little because I swear it was a guarantee that if I passed a bag of snacks to them, whether that was a bag of goldfish or potato chips or licorice, whatever it was, I had to do as count to about 10 before I heard it fall all over the ground. Right? And so all of a sudden we had this full bag of goldfish that has just been dumped all over my van floor. And so one thing that I have learned, and maybe it's a little bit pricier, like you mentioned, but when I do road trips, individual snacks all the time because it's easier to say, here's your individual sized bag of goldfish, rather than passing the giant bag over for fear that it's going to topple over.
Jen: I thought that I just had is those great little infant cups that have those little, I don't know, lid on it that things can't fall out. They have to stick their hand in. I'm just wondering what happens if each kid had their own little bowl
Hilary: Even if they're a little bit older? Yeah, really. They would be past that age for those cups.
Jen: They pass them to mom or dad. Mom or dad fills us up and then passes and back down.
Hilary: That's a good point, I like it.
Jen: That was inspiration right there
Hilary: You know what? This is a quirky idea, but I saw another mom blogger that she talked about this. So, she had like little ones, probably your three-year olds, four-year olds, maybe a year, two-year olds. So you know, those big like pill organizer bottles were splitting up into the days of the week. So, she dropped by and you can get them at the dollar store. So, you're not going to spend a bunch here that she would get those for her kids and she put a little snack in each one of those. That's a little side. Yes, it would be like two little goldfish in one and then a little skittle in one and then like a tiny cracker and another one. But it turns like essentially it's both a snack and a game because you've got this three year old that's taking the time to open up each little container and eat it, and then he's opening in and closing it. And so, I thought I would never purchase one of those for a snack purpose. But I totally see wow, that that could be amazing.
Jen: And you can buy the bigger ones where they have two weeks’ worth of morning and night, so there's four rows.
Hilary: Take even more time to eat their snack.
Jen: Oh yeah, I’m all about time. How can I draw this out, right?
Hilary: So I did that was one of my one of my kids when they were little and it was just so fun to hear the little click, click, click, as he opened up and closed every little container and eating his snacks. And then, yeah, he passed back up to me and we did refill it back up and give it back.
Jen: And I'm just thinking of those little games that I had when I was a kid. When you push the button and the little thing, and it's of a cow and it's like “Mooo”, so you should put little pictures on those through and make your kids do the sounds at the same time
Hilary: (Laguhter) Man, snack and activity, it's a double win. So, I'm thinking, well, and I'll say this with snacks is kind of nice because for my other kids where I'm in the front passenger side and my kids, their other kids are in the very back of the van. It becomes really obnoxious to pass things back and forth over and over again. And then you have again the chance of spilling as you're passing. And so I tend to buy one of those, usually, it's like one of the maybe like three drawer Tupperware-ish type containers where it's got the three different drawers that you can pull out. And I'll just fill up a few snacks in those. And kind of if I've got a free spot in the back of the van or even just on the floor or between the two seats, I'll put that there. And then that way they can kind of keep themselves organized when it comes to their snacks because they're old enough that they can manage them on their own without making a giant mess. And then I'm not turning around 500 times to share things with them.
Jen: I'm thinking though, on this next road trip that we're taking in May, I'm going to give my husband one of those bowls that you can't spill out.
Hilary: Here you go, sweetie. I bought this really cool thing.
Jen: Bless that man. I love him dearly. But oh, my heavens. If he can make a mess, he'll make a mess. I have a little bag, like it's made for your gearshift.
Hilary: Oh, yes,
Jen: For your garbage is right there. But I will still find all of this garbage in the little hole in the door where your handle is.
Hilary: It seems like the little kid still tries to cram his wrappers underneath the cushions while they're out of sight, out of mind. All right. So what about activities? How do I keep them entertained?
Jen: Well, you have your devices, but we don't want to just focus on those, I think. I mean, there's great road trip games that. I mean, I don't know if kids play them nowadays because of the fact they have devices, but the eye spies, I mean, when my stepdaughter was nine, we would play the alphabet game with billboards. So you had to find a billboard that had a letter “A” and so forth. So she liked that at nine years old, I think those I spy things were looking for a different license plates from around the country. I also like I had a mom tell me once that she goes to the dollar store and she gets her kids things for about like every two hours. And you know how long it is. And she wraps them so they have a new thing to unwrap every two hours from the dollar store. Maybe it's a coloring book and crayons or something like that, but that made it fun for her, her kids, and they really enjoyed it. For older kids, I think having a jar full of questions. And just what would you do if you had a million dollars or what would you do if you are an astronaut? Where would you want to go? Things like that, where you kind of get to know those weird, obscure things about kids, and it can strike up great conversations.
Hilary: Yeah, I love that idea of wrapping up the toys because. I've been in on car trips before where I bought my kids a few different things and I put it in a bag and I've sat at next to them and said, Here you go, here's your activities for the trip. And an hour later, my child's like, Well, now I've done everything, so I've got six more hours. What's next? And so I think that is a good tip to have to ration amount to an extent. Here is your first toy. You're going to play with this for the next hour and tell the next one comes. And sometimes that means that they still only play with it for 10 minutes, because then they're going to choose the next 50 minutes to look out the window or talk to their brother or sister or listen to the radio. But yes, I have made that mistake where children have flew through all the activities and then expected more, and we have no more for them.
Jen: My stepdaughter went to Canada a few years ago with her mom and their family. And so, I bought her like a travel journal. Like, when you're driving down the road, what do you see? So, she could keep a little log of what she saw. That was her first time leaving the United States, and so I thought that was fun. There's children's Mad Libs out there. Mad Libs are hilarious. Not only are you having fun and laughing, but you're also making your children use grammar. So, there's an I got those off of Amazon, and so there's lots of like travel gains that you can buy nowadays, too.
Hilary: And another tip that I heard one time and I've done this with my kids that's really helped is that as I'm kind of organizing all the activities and maybe wrapping them up if needs be or putting them in individual bags, I will always set aside some of the activities for the ride home because I feel like on the ride there, everybody's excited. You're going on vacation. It's new, it's enticing. But then the ride home, you just want to get home. And so I'll always pull aside some things so that they have something new for the way home. I mean, yeah, they'll still use some of those toys that they went through there, but they've got a few new things to look forward to as well. I found that to be really helpful.
Jen: And there's a lot I know with my library. You can do the app on and get books on tape. Yeah, and listen to books. I think it's OK. Also to have a period of quiet time of we're not playing with anything, we're just going to have quiet time. And if that means you're going to take a little nap or you're just going to look out the window and enjoy the scenery, whatever it may be, we're going to have a little bit of quiet time.
Hilary: Yes, for everyone not just the children. But Mom and Dads. You need that quiet time to right. It's true we get so used to always having noise on, and sometimes that's always having the radio on are always having the devices on. So to turn everything off, it's going to be a good recharge opportunity for everyone. So I'll tell you, this is kind of funny. I was thinking about when my kids were really, really little. So, like, you know, rear facing car seat, those are the trickiest times, right, where you're just constantly handing them a toy and they're throwing it off the side of their car seat and then you're handing them another one. Man I don't miss those road trip days that three things that I have found that work with these little ones and these ideas might be for a little bit older kids because we don't necessarily want little ones that are still putting things in their mouths, but go to the dollar store three quirky things that I'm going to have you buy, but I want you to buy a tissue box, post-it notes and stickers. Those three things kept my kids entertained much longer than any other any other toy I bought them. I mean, you think about a tissue box, right? Pull it out. There's another one. How exciting is that, right? It's like magic. So be prepared that your car is going to look like a big old mess by the time they're done right. You're going to walk in with that mindset and you're going to realize at the next pit stop, I'm just going to pick up all the tissues and I'm going to toss them right. But to hand them a tissue box and they pull and they pull and they pull, they have a great time. Same thing with the Post-it Notes. They're not going to know what to do with it at the very beginning. But if you show them that, if they can pull one off and then they can pull another, my little one lasted for a solid 30 minutes of pulling sticky notes one after, after the other after the other.
Jen: And I'm just thinking of all other developmental things that are going on at the same time. Right fine motor skills, cause and effect hand-eye coordination.
Hilary: Exactly. And again, you just pick them all up after you throw them away, it’s not huge deal. My kids love stickers. Even my older girls love them, right? And so sometimes with my older kids, I will give them a notebook so that they can put their stickers in the notebook. But when my kids were little little, I just taught them. I showed them that you take the sticker off and you stick it on your hand, right? Mm-Hmm. I remember I have a picture of my oldest son and he's in his car seat and he has stickers all over his face because that's what he had done. So, when we had a pit stop, we went and got him out of his car seat and he probably had 30 stickers all over his face, just smiling and happy as can be.
Jen: Those are fond memories, right?
Hilary: And make sure you get those kinds of like those puffy kinds of stickers. They're easier for those little hands than just the regular stickers to find those cute raised ones because they work a lot better for those.
Jen: And he was thinking in my head need to invent a net that goes all the way around. Not like where their feet are hitting that the backseat, but a net that goes around all of the car seat. So everything that goes over is on net. That would be a good invention.
Hilary: Oh my goodness. Yep. And then you just collect the net, right?
Jen: Yeah, then just empty it out in the trashcan and using their straps. Now, whoever, if someone makes it, I get credit for it. If you decide that's something you're going to decide.
Hilary: I know. I mean, again, going back to that very first tip of your mindset, you're traveling with little kid. Your car's going to be a mess. That's OK, right? Yeah, that's OK to have stickers on the ground and a few squished goldfish on the floor. Hopefully not a bag, but a few squished, right?
Jen: And that's just it's nothing. That you can’t clean up? Right? That could be a fun activity do as a family at the end, anyways. Let's see how fast we can get the car cleaned up.
Hilary: Yep, I like it. I like it. And I honestly, I think if we think about it, I think oftentimes when we're thinking about road trips and traveling in the car with kids, we get the idea that this is good done with as fast as we can, right? Let's get this over with, and I think we want to remember that that is part of the vacation, right? That should be part of the fun, hopefully.
Jen: I mean, those, I mean, granted, we I was driving from Phoenix to Utah when I in the 70s and 80s, and so you didn't have to have your seatbelt on. And so we had the big station wagon where you put the seats down and all the blankets are in the back and you just lay back there and rolled around. But those are probably some of the greatest memories I have was just that drive from Phoenix to Utah. And so making them instead of this chore or this horrible thing is changing that mindset of this is part of the journey. Let's make it part of our memory pool that we have.
Hilary: Yeah. All right, guys. I mean, all the good vibes, right? I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.
Jen: All right. Well, this was I really liked this episode. I think it was a fun episode, and I think our listeners will like it as well. Hopefully, there's some good tips for you parents out there. And if you have any other tips that you want to share, we are more than happy to put them on the podcast when they come in and share them. So, email us or at parents@thefamilyplaceutah.org or you can send those on to my Facebook page at Jen Daly – The Family Place and we're happy to share that on air so everyone else can participate in your fabulous ideas. We invite you to text 33222 and you can get parenting tips twice a week. We also encourage and invite you to share with your friends and family about this podcast. We love doing it, and we would love to reach as many people as we can. We hope it's helpful, and this is our part of helping strengthen families and protect children, something that we're both very passionate about. We hope that you have a great week. And if next week is your spring break, enjoy that time and create some great family memories. We will see you back here next week.
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