The Family Car Trip

The family vacation can be a fun adventurous getaway from the daily grind of homelife. Preparing for a trip, when you have little ones can be overwhelming with the amount of items you suddenly need to drag with you. Daunting, yes, worth it? You bet. If you have a family like mine, you are usually required to get into the car and bring your brood across the states to visit family. From the very beginning we have had to pack our group up and hit the road. A car trip with a baby can get long if you are unprepared. As with any trip you must be prepared to entertain your child to the best of your ability taking regard to their age, or the trip can make you insane. Our car rides to Florida from Chicago began way before the kids arrived. My husband and I loved to be able to jump in the car and go. When our kids came along, we naturally knew they would have to become good car travelers. Thankfully we never had anyone suffer with car sickness.

Things that can help make the miles fly by depend upon the age of the child. And the more kids you add can change everything that once worked to not so much anymore. My oldest was one when we traveled to DisneyWorld for the first time as a new family. Our car trip started out after lunch in the early afternoon. We looked at books, played with toys and he napped. As evening came, we stretched and got out of the car & had dinner at a McDonald's playplace. Perfect for his age (playplaces were all new then) Blake was able to burn off some energy running around and playing in the tunnels and slides. We went back to the car and continued on playing with some new toys, coloring and listening to music and Disney books on tapes. We continued on driving through the night, taking turns, all the while my son was sleeping away. By the time morning came we stopped again to get out and have breakfast and then hit the road again with only a few more hours left to drive. We found that if you are a night person and driving at night doesn't bother you, then you can put some serious miles in while the kids are sleeping, and the trip goes faster for both of you. My son did great! Traveling that far with a toddler can seem like a lot of work, but how often at home can we give them such a long stretch of undivided attention. There is always something to do at home, even just cleaning up and making meals. In a car on a long road trip you get the opportunity to spend the time hanging out and playing with your child. And being able to spend some quality time that you might not have a home. Paying undivided attention to just your kid. Yes, we are going to have car traveling kids.