Family Roadtrips.

Roooadddttrripppp!!!

The word/idea has a very different meaning in this stage of life! Gone are the days when roadtrips meant “fun” – heading out with friends or with Joe on an adventure. Loud music (loud singing), pranks, and switching drivers for an overnight drives were some of the highlights!

As our family grows it makes sense to return to the roadtrip life for a couple of different reasons than “fun” – budget, convenience, and if we’re in a good state of mind – family adventure.

People often think I’m crazy when I tell them we are driving our whole family from Illinois to Pennsylvania (12 hrs), or to Colorado (13 hrs), or to Texas (16 hrs), or to Florida (18 – 21 hrs).

This is why we love it:

Joe loves to drive. He usually drives the entire time – he MIGHT ask me to drive an hour or two to take a nap if he’s sleepy. Sometimes I have to convince him to let me drive so I can get a break from the kids (hah!)
When it comes to kids, we don’t pack light. We take the portable bassinet, the play gym, the potty, the step stool, the pack n play, the box of toys, the books, the art utensils, the snacks, the drinks, the floaties!! Vacation goes a lot smoother when children are comfortable and can stick to their routines as much as possible. We shove everything into the car!
We love the mobility. Usually when we vacation somewhere we love to drive around, get our own groceries, and visit friends/family nearby. And let’s get real, rental cars are expensive! And you have lug around carseats, strollers, etc.
We love the scenery. Joe and I love talking about what it would be like to live on the rolling hills in Tennessee, up in the Atlanta or Colorado mountains, and how much I would not like living in swampy, mossy Florida! We love to watch the types of trees change as we go different directions and talk about it with the kids.
We get time to talk. When the kids are sleeping or busy Joe and I get to talk about all kinds of things – we talk more than we would on a date night! Or we listen to an audiobook/podcast together and then naturally talk about it. It’s the best!
We love to play the Punch buggy game (haha)

This is why I don’t love it:

Bored children, grumpy children, loud children. That is all!

This is how we do it:

We spread it out over 2 days. Our kids don’t do well waking up in the middle of the night and finding themselves strapped into a carseat. So, we use up some credit card points to get a nice hotel. We get rested, we enjoy a free breakfast, and the kids get excited (L used to say “let’s go to another home-otel!”) – its something we enjoy together. We try to get there by at least 9 pm to give the kids time to get over their excitement and settle down to sleep – or sometimes they’re already sleeping and the grownups get alone time!
We let kids be kids. Kids need to move and they need to be engaged. They have so much learning to do in their young years and that doesn’t stop for a family roadtrip! So we drive a maximum of 8-9 hours/day but we make 2 big stops (1 hr long) to let the kids get their physical need for movement out on a playground, or by a lake where we can skip stones, or if its winter – a fast food restaurant with an indoor playground. Once we even went bowling.
We limit screentime. Screens are addicting. Especially so for the young mind that can’t handle the stimulation and lacks self-control (though us adults can be like this as well!) We do this successfully by “investing” in $20-30 worth of little things from Dollar Tree before our trip. This truly is an investment in the protection of our children’s brains and also the sanity of the grownups! I’ll share specifics on what works in another post! The screentime we allow:
- educational games for right before a meal (so its gets limited to an hour max)
- a movie on the ipad when it gets dark outside and its too dark for play.
Audiobooks for everyone. Even the kids – because Mommy can only twist my back and neck backwards so many times to read a picture book to the monkeys in the back!
We hope for a long nap. It makes for a much needed break and a good stretch of driving when all 3 kids get a good 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day – to make this happen: See “let kids be kids” and stay away from caffeinated beverages!
Snacks, snacks, lollipops, snacks. Bring plastic cups to make snacking less messy!