5 Tips For A Really Great Road Trip With Kids

Road trips are as All-American as Apple Pie. Surely, we all look back on the road trips we took with our families as kids with fond memories. But, going on a great road trip as a kid and going on a Great Road Trip with kids is an entirely different experience. There are a whole different set of rules and the name of the game is PEACE. Whatever you must do, to keep the fighting and the boredom at a minimum is what you must do. So, keep reading for the Ultimate Tips for a Really Great Road Trip With Kids.

I’m a road-tripper. Not necessarily because I love the process, but because I love to travel and with 12 kids there is literally no other way to travel!  I mean, can you imagine the cost of air travel for 14? Or even 10?

And so, we road trip. When we first got the travel bug we gave car travel a valiant effort. We really did. But traveling with infants and toddlers and super young kids in a car was enough to kill us. You cannot drive 15 minutes without having to nurse or change a diaper or stop to pee or to get food. A 5 hour drive takes double.

So, we got the RV. And, guys that has been awesome for 5 years. It made traveling with super young kids beyond easy. It was like traveling with my home. It can’t get any easier or budget friendly than RV’ing, truly.

But, then it’s also cumbersome and, when you add driving an additional vehicle, a bit more expensive. And so, we have been leaving the RV home more and more and venturing our in our truck, mostly to visit family because, you know, they invite us in, offer us beds.

But, it still takes some crazy skills (or insider info) to get through a long road trip with kids.  So, following are KelloggShow’s top tips for a Really Great Road Trip With Kids!

Electronics

This is the number one tip! If you don’t have electronics, like a tablet, that the kids can play games on, don’t even pull out of your driveway. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Stop, read this guide and buy an electronic device on it!

Now, fret not, I’m not big on video games or tablet games, but in the car, you bet, they can play for 16 hours straight if it means they will be content. My kids did just this on the way home from SoCal this week.

Junk Food

Road Trippin means putting aside your clean eating lifestyle and throw caution to the wind. I’m a health food nut, but on a road trip, when I’m in the car with my gazillion kids for hours upon hours, I don’t care about their teeth or anything else. I care only about harmony. In the RV, it’s different, I’m a health food nazi, car travel is a whole different devil! 

This last trip was all Clearance priced Halloween candy and one fast food meal. I’m steadfastly more opposed to fast food than I am to candy, so my hierarchy of health took only a minor beating. However, my Aunt packed our car with some healthy choices for the ride home. I discovered Roasted Chicken Breast from Trader Joe’s in the bag somewhere around Mesquite, NV and did a serious happy dance! I did stick to my ONLY Water rule so we just packed our GeigerRigs, filled them with water and hydrated with pure filtered water!

RedBox

Our vehicles are all ancient, save one that is a 2005 … ancient by many standards, but still it has a flip down monitor with a built in dvd and wireless headphones. Genius.

Genius begets genius, hence, RedBox movies are the third most integral part of a Really Great Road Trip With Kids. Pick a couple in Nevada and return them in Salt Lake as you pick up a few more. And for like, $1.50 per movie, it’s literally foolproof, unless the kids fight over which movie to watch first. In which case, throw back some candy …

Quality Time

Ha ha ha ha, but seriously, I’m being totally serious. The car is where you tend to have your kids undivided attention. I mean they are trapped. They can’t go anywhere. And truthfully, they are looking for any distraction, so it’s a win/win.  A Really Great Road Trip With Kids is great conversation, yo!

This car ride I was keyed into all the gossip from the family visit, because kids miss nothing, y’all, nothing. I learned a few intimacies about an unnamed puberty stricken youngster who felt compelled to me about his/her experiences. My gosh, I learned about their hard limits in a game of I Would Never. I felt so important, so blessed to be able to sit and talk so openly and honestly with my kids. I also learned how amazingly, honest, sweet, kind and loyal they are to each other and the world-at-large. 

Minimize Stops

Counter to what everyone tells you, your best bet is to just reach your destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. I’m a master at this, Dan not so much. I despise stops, they are literal time killers. My ideal road trip is head down, balls to the floor … no freakin journey, just a mission. My ADHD goes out the window here, it’s truly the only area in my life that I focus 100% of my energy on.  And let’s face it, kids benefit immensely … less time in the car!

With our competitive spirits, we make it a game. We calculate the amount of miles, the average speed (mine is considerably faster than Dan’s because I’m goal oriented) and decide upon a time of arrival. On our trip home from SoCal it should have taken us 14.5 hrs.  It took us … 15 hrs and that’s with 3 stops for gas, and two side of the road stops to pee. It’s also, ladies and gentleman with Thanksgiving traffic which was astoundingly robust!