Surviving the Drive: Must-Haves for Road Trips with Kids

My family just returned from a week-long beach trip, and I had been nervous leading up to it. My kids are generally well-behaved, but 10-hour road trips are no one’s idea of fun (at least, I haven’t met anyone that enjoys that). I was worried how to entertain my two and four-year-old, and what to do if they began to complain early in to the drive.

Fortunately, the drive there and back ended up going fairly well! We had one carsick incident, but besides that, it honestly exceeded my expectations. It made me feel silly for worrying so much beforehand. All that to say, here are some helpful tips to keep your sanity before and during long road trips, as well as some practical things to help entertain your littles!

For Mom’s Sanity

• Be prepared. Come up with a plan.
  • A week or two prior to your trip, do a Google search on fun travel activities, ask some mom friends what worked for them, or use your creativity to think of some potential ideas.
• Set realistic expectations.
  • I went into the trip worrying about every little thing. That’s not very realistic, is it? That thought didn’t really cross my mind until I got into the car and we started driving. Once on the road, I began to focus on the things I could control and trying to empathize with the kids. Some thoughts that crossed my mind were…
    • • • • As much as I wanted to keep going to speed up the drive, maybe we needed to stop for a quick break.
          • If I heard my kids start to get antsy, how could we all reframe the situation?
          • If one kid was upset, allowing them to be upset and validate that it is a long drive, and it can be hard to sit still for so long.
          • Instead of only saying “no” or “stop doing that”, also praising them for being patient and getting along (when warranted).
• Remember that little eyes are watching.
  • Just like most kids, I too get impatient in the car. I often feel tired, bored, hungry, or irritated. In those moments, there’s no better time than the present to model how to handle those big feelings. I’m nowhere near perfect at this, but it can be helpful to voice how you’re feeling and what you’re going to do about it.
    • Example: “I feel so annoyed that there’s traffic and we’re moving slow. I’m going to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and think of a fun game to play while we wait.”
• Take a mental break.
  • During the last hour or two during road trips, it’s possible that the kids just won’t be content. Build in some extra stops if possible, offer to take over the driving and have your spouse/partner entertain, or put in some headphones and listen to a few songs or a podcast for a bit. It’s okay to create some space, especially if you feel overstimulated and overwhelmed. Even at the young ages of two and four, I’ve found that my kids will adjust and adapt to Mom’s request of needing a 5-10 minute mental health break.

Practical Tips

• Buy ALL the stickers!
  • I think the biggest reason our drive was so successful was thanks to stickers. Those things are magic for my kids. I bought some sheets at the Dollar Store, along with a mini notepad for each of them. I highly recommend one notepad per kid, so that they don’t have to take turns or ask you for extra paper every few minutes. Buy stickers of their favorite animals, movie/TV characters, foods, sports, etc. My two year-old was very focused, practicing her fine motor skills to take each sticker off. My four year-old was more efficient at peeling stickers, but then used the notepad to distribute the stickers, and create a story to tell the family. Pretty awesome!
• Variety is key.
  • Not all kids will like everything, and I also understand not wanting your kids to think they “need” stuff to do every single moment. I tried to keep those in mind when coming up with ideas. I made an effort to space out activities per hour. If I gave the kids something they quickly got bored with, they needed to find a way to entertain themselves until the next rest stop or the next scheduled time for a new activity. For some reason, my kids weren’t really into coloring this trip. They got bored with crayons after about 10 minutes. I encouraged them to find their own fun, or engage in a former activity until the next hour. I’m not saying they were always happy about it, but they knew the expectation was set!
• Create a playlist.
  • A few days before the trip, I created a Spotify playlist with the kids’ favorite songs (and some throwbacks for Mom and Dad – think N’Sync and Hilary Duff). The playlist wasn’t introduced until about halfway through the trip in order to maintain the adults’ sanity of not hearing Bubble Guppies or Paw Patrol songs on repeat. Having a playlist with songs that you are 90% confident the kids will enjoy was super helpful! It definitely cut out some stress of having to think of new songs in the moment or listening to the same song multiple times on road trips.
• Screens for emergencies.
  • I’m only speaking for my family and my kids’ ages, but I just want to say that I know everyone has different preferences and takes on this. If you are okay with your kids having lots of screentime in the car, that’s great! If you don’t want your kids to have any screentime in the car, also great! I decided that I wanted my kids to have the option for screentime, mostly in emergencies when there were frustrations or some sort of issue where we felt “stuck.”  When little sister would take a nap (which was only once for 30 minutes both ways), my son was permitted to watch a show. On the way home, my daughter ended up getting really sick, and we all felt overwhelmed after our best attempts to wash everything off at a gas station. Again, it worked for us to have a show on afterwards to ease tensions and make it the final hour in our trip.
• Think what you would’ve enjoyed as a kid!
  • Be nostalgic and think back to what you had fun with as a kid. Our kids ended up loving window clings, a slinky, and Rubix cubes. As a last minute add-on, the kids each grabbed a baby doll and a bottle. I told them that their job was to keep baby happy until it was baby’s naptime (about an hour into the drive). They had a ton of fun being in charge, and having responsibility for their babies.

All this to say, you are the expert, Mom! Trust your intuition, get creative, and set realistic expectations. The best part is that most of these long road trips end with great family memories at your destination – and things to look back on and smile at when you’re finally home. Safe travels and deep breaths!