How to Keep You Cool During A Road Trip with Children

If there is one activity which is guaranteed to test a parent’s patience, it is that of an impending road trip with children in tow!

The trick to mastering the most successful road trip of this kind, therefore, is planning as much as is possible. This is particularly essential if you have younger children whom you will have to organize the journey around their needs.

Plan Your Route Well Ahead of Schedule

This involves sectioning off schedules for adequate stopping times for bathroom duties, as well as drinks and food pit stops. Now it’s possible to track your location and stake out where the best stop off, and refueling places are all from the comfort of your computer.

Better still, print out the route and hand it to the kids to allow them to track the journey and thereby see how far off you are each time from the designated pit stop. This may go some way toward quashing that overworked phrase of are we there yet?

Stock Up on Car Essentials

By this, I mean wet wipes, travel sickness bands or tablets, sick bags, hand sanitizer, paracetamol, headache tablets, air freshener and even carpet cleaner! Basically, everything that you know you may at some point have a use for when undertaking a long car journey with little people in tow!

Prep Snack Bags for the Journey Ahead

When little minds get bored and start to wonder, there will always be a plea for something to eat. This is especially true if you’ve headed out extra early in a bid to beat the traffic. I always prepare several zip lock bags with breakfast items in one, and then raw vegetables and fruit in another. This keeps everyone happy until the next stop, as well as ensuring it’s not too heavy on little stomachs.

Organize Car Entertainment

Lastly, with so many ways of keeping children entertained when traveling these days, finding stuff for them to do during a long car journey has never been easier. There are numerous electronic devices and travel games to pack up and take with you.

If you have a child who suffers from car sickness, it isn’t always possible to keep them occupied this way, but I have found that audio books of their choice are so good at distracting them or even just being able to select music from their own playlists.