How To Drive With Kids
When we had our third daughter my husband was adamant about me getting a minivan. I was not ready for that type of brand identifier. My heart was set on a suburban. Our compromise was that if I got a suburban then one day, in the far off future, we would get a trailer, and we would be campers. Deal, shook on it. One year later, enter COVID.
We experienced plenty of trial-and-errors when it came to driving with the girls (our dog included). From all three puking on me on the winding, grueling drive up to the Sequoias (still worth it though), to Willow (the dog) pooping in the car while we were headed to The Grand Canyon, to chicken nuggets flying, and the always: “are we there yet, are we almost there???” 3,000 times in 14 minutes.
Here are my hacks:
The girls sit three in a row in the last row of the car - this way everyone is “even” when it comes to TV viewing. The second row is folded down and becomes storage.
I have a velcro “belt” that wraps around my headrest (front passenger seat), then I added durable velcro to the back of the iPad. Obviously, this trick is only for those who don’t have builtin screens.
I tell the girls the length of a drive in movie format. For example, a six hour drive would equal three movies (make sure the movies are on the longer side).
I pay the bigger girls $1 an hour of “helpful” drive time. Helpful meaning, not complaining, opening the goldfish bag for the baby, fetching things off the ground that the baby threw and on and on. This becomes their “souvenir” money, which usually they want to spend at the first Target they spot off the side of the freeway.
Car internet. Our car (Suburban) offers wifi for $25 a month that I just tack onto my phone bill.
Snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. And bribery type snacks, the good stuff they don’t get at home.
Barf bags - learned the hard way on the way to General Sherman.
On winding roads — Remind your children LITERALLY every 14 seconds to look straight ahead - through the front windshield, watch the road, straight ahead, when you are driving on curvy and winding roads. Or else.
Change of clothes - because of the aforementioned trauma we all experienced.
Download your maps and food/gas stops. Don’t rely on service while you’re driving. You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.
On long drive days, the last thing you want to do is figure out food the second you arrive. En route or ahead of time, research a nearby restaurant to find something that your family can agree on. Pizza. Choose a restaurant that is a few minutes outside your campground. Place an order for pick up at such and such time. Pick it up you’re a hero.
The Handy Hand — I found this at a toy store. Very helpful, very sturdy little-hand grip. I use this to pass back snacks so I don’t throw out my shoulder, neck, back or sanity.
Always have warm clothes in the car for travel days. Where you are coming from, is not necessarily where you are going. Zion to Bryce.
OF MAJOR IMPORTANCE: Always try your hardest to arrive to your campsite while it is still light out. There are the obvious reasons: So you can see what you’re doing when backing up, unhitching, Michael probably has 2¢ about this. But why it’s a major importance for me is because of the bugs. Never have I heard my kids scream more than when you open a car door and the bugs by the blizzards come straight into the car headed towards the lights. This one time in Tahoe, while River had a very legitimate nervous breakdown about a beetle in her hair, I had to turn off the interior car lights, take a flood flashlight, stand outside the car (talk about human sacrifice) and lure the bugs out while clicking the auto up window, auto down window over and over again. We all learned a very valuable lesson that day.
