Traveling With Children

Have you ever had the experience of a long trip with the children? When on the last trip I saw a family crossing India on a train with three young children. The problem here is that there is actually no way to entertain three young children for the 24 hours on the train.They become cranky because of all the people that want to touch them and have their attention and if one is not fully prepared for the experience then this can be a very stressful events. Most people travel with children in their own car and for relatively short period but after some time this can be quite chaotic as well. Best advice I can give you is turn the road itself into a playground for the children, play with them travel friendly games, use the time for conversation not only among yourself something that can lead to losing the children patience but rather direct the conversations to them. Make some competitions such as how identify all the signs on the road first and know what they say, let them sing for you or perform things that can be one sitting down, and the most important thing remember how it was to sit in your parent’s car for long hours when you were a kid. If you remember how it is to be a child that is forced to sit for long hours I’m sure you’ll do just fine as the key for successful road trip with children is to acknowledge them.

I found this to be a very good advice of the bloger Gudrun Enger

When calculating the time it will take to get there, factor in an additional 25%. For example, from Palo Alto to Santa Barbara, according to Google Maps, is supposed to take about 5 hours - when we travel with our kids, it always takes 6.5 hours. Our trip to San Diego is supposed to take 7.5 hours, I am planning on 10. Why the extra time? Kids, especially toddlers who cannot self-entertain, will need to stop fairly often to run around. And even those who can read or do crafts by themselves, still need to get out of car seats and have a stretch.

Know that the children need sometime out of the car and just make the schedule more flexible so you won’t find yourself yelling at the children that you are late. If you plan the trip in the right way it can turn into a very positive experrience for all of you.