We drove from Arizona to Montana and stayed there for a few months. While staying there, I travelled to Utah and back once. And then we had to drive back to Arizona at the end of the summer. We did these trips in legs, stopping to visit with family along the way. Still most our traveling days were 9-12 hours. Here are some things I learned that helped me survive and I’m sharing just in case they will help some of you if you ever find yourself wondering how in the world you’re going to make the trip without ending up in Crazy Town.
Tip #1 Pray, Pray, Pray
Seriously. My first long trip on my own was a little preparation and lot miracle. We only stopped twice!
Tip #2 Be Prepared
Each kid needs a backpack or bag with their supplies:
SNACKS. This is the number one way to keep my kids happy and quiet. The night before we leave I put out boxes of crackers, candy, marshmallows, cookies, etc., and a package of plastic baggies to put each snack in. I give each kid a gallon size bag and said they fill it (I assigned the older two kids to also fill bags for the youngest two). The nutritional content of the food is not a consideration. This is all about survival… mine.
SCREEN. The second most effective way to keep my kids from turning into raving lunatics is to put a screen in front of them: iPad, Kindle - whatever - as long as it glows, has games, and maybe even a movie. Some of you may be thinking “they should just look out the window and enjoy the scenery” or “whatever happened to I Spy and the Alphabet Game?” Those are great suggestions. Until you’re the only adult in a car barreling through that beautiful scenery on a winding highway and your two year old repeatedly yells “I’m bored” for an hour straight (thanks older brother) while the 10 month old cries for no apparent reason and the girls in the backseat are accusing each other of breathing funny. Screens it is.
COLORING ACTIVITY. Batteries don’t last forever so I need back up entertainment. Plus, it makes me feel like a better mom if they at least pack non-tablet activities - whether they end up using them or not.
A TOY OR TWO. Not too many. They are annoying to have to pick up or have kids climb over every time you stop. But once again, iPad batteries don’t last forever.
Tip #3 Leave Early
Go when they’re groggy and the world still seems like a marvelous place. And if it doesn’t seem marvelous, they can go back to sleep.
Tip #4 Take Only Multi-purpose No-thought Stops
Multipurpose in that there is a bathroom, gas station and a place to eat all in one place - or at least next to each other. Don’t stop for potty break and then realize an hour later you need to stop again for gas. And don’t ask where anyone wants to eat - not even yourself. No thinking. That’s too much energy to expend when you’re traveling with kids. Just stop at the first place you see that meets the multi-purpose criteria and choke down Subway if that’s all there is (sorry if you love it; I don’t, but I still stopped there).
Tip #5 Or Don’t Even Stop for Meals
A couple trips we packed muffins (store bought - I’m not THAT good) and frozen Gogurts for breakfast and Lunchables for, you guessed it, lunch. This really helped because as soon as someone cried, “I’m hungry for lunch,” I didn’t have to start into the “wait until the next town” reply to every variation of the complaint they could hurl at me (it never ceases to amaze me how many times they can complain of basically the same thing but act like they haven’t already gotten an answer). Now these are not my favorite forms of sustenance. But if needed, I can get through on a bag of Lay’s Limon chips (not in normal life, only on car trips. I don’t know why).
Tip #6 Have some Travel Johns in the Vehicle
I got these as a white elephant gag gift one year and they actually have turned out to be awesome and so I’ve bought more. When my son who was born with the Searle bladder has to go at the worst time - you know when both toddlers are asleep and we just stopped an hour ago - I just hand him a Travel John. The first time it was a lifesaver was when my third child was a few months old and I was traveling 3 hours alone with 3 kids 4 and under. Again, prayer worked, as my prayers that all three kids would sleep the whole drive were answered. Problem was, an hour in I needed a bathroom and gas. But they were all asleep! I stopped for gas, sure that they would wake up when the car was turned off - like they usually did - but this time my prayers were being answered so they didn’t. But all was not lost! I remembered that I had that gag gift in the car and I used it! And they all slept all the way home! So don’t count this one out as too weird of an idea!
Tip #7 Keep a Throw-Up Container Handy (Travel Johns work for this too)
Even if you don’t really think the kid will throw up when they complain about feeling sick, having a sibling hand the complainer the throw-up bag will make the kid feel validated and keep her from bugging you about how she feels (hopefully).
Tip #8 Send the Toddler on a Plane with Grandma Instead
I actually haven’t done this, but I wish I could have. Pretty much every crazy thing that happened while traveling this year had to do with my two year old. On one trip she threw up from carsickness, fell in a gas station bathroom toilet and on the way back had an anaphylactic allergic reaction to a pistachio a couple hours into a trip and ended up being admitted to the hospital overnight (luckily my mom was traveling with me on that leg of the journey). By the last two trips she had decided she could no longer pee in a diaper and had to go to the bathroom every hour (by the way, she basically potty trained herself. I wasn’t going to do it until we were done with all these trips - another tip I guess - but she has a mind of her own). She also can ask for the same thing over and over and over and over for literally an hour. No joke. Love her. Just might like her a little more if she travelled with someone else. And grandmas like their grandkids no matter what, right?
Hopefully this will help if you decide to brave the wild adventures of traveling with lots of kids. Or you could just not. That probably should’ve been tip #1. But really, I was amazed to learn that it really wasn’t as bad as I had always imagined it would be, and I really CAN do hard things.
