This is the biggest travel day of the year. Many people hit the highway, airways, or even railways. Traveling is one of the single most stressful things that one person can do. What is the weather going to be like? Will my flight be delayed? Did I pack my toothbrush? Did I pack my underwear?
Questions that will only be answered once you realize that you have no underwear at all to wear. Hopefully, this won’t happen to me as I will be traveling to family who live on a farm and I will not have the luxury of having a Wal-Mart within 60 miles of their house.
This a very stressful time for parents, many of which will be traveling with little ones. Screaming in the back seat, changing dirty diapers on the side of the road, stopping every hour or two just to let the little ones go the bathroom do not make for easy travel.
To make for easier traveling here five tips one should follow.
1. Plan your stops accordingly
Pre-planning your stops can help all of your fellow travelers understand how long to “hold it” or until they can get a chance to stretch their legs. Make them apart of the planning of the stops so that they can see just how long they will be in the car. Also you would be able to tell them “Well you picked that stop so we have to wait until then”
2. Pack a Bag of Toys
Some may consider this a no brainer. But when you are traveling with a toddler who won’t want to stay in his car seat for very long this is something that will help. Pack the back with his favorite toys or stuffed animals. Our carseat has a cup holder and make sure that you have it attached so that he can have a drink whenever he wants and you are not reaching around to give him some water. Just make sure it has a no-spill lid or you might have to make an unexpected stop that you didn’t plan on. (See Tip #1)
3. Try to hit Naptimes
This is ever more so crucial when traveling with toddlers and infants. They do not like to be strapped into their carseats for very long so if you can get most of the trip out of the way during a 2 hour nap time it will help tremendously. Plus this way atleast you get some sort of peace and quiet. That maybe reason enough to start your trip off at a naptime.
4.Find Rest Area’s or fast food joints with play areas
This goes along with tip #1. But this is one way for the children to get out, stretch their legs, and let out some of the energy they have had from Naptime, or from reading books that they have been pulling out of their backpack that you gave them. The only downside to this is that many other traveler’s with children have either read this tip or already knew this and will probably be there at the same time as you will. Screaming kids alert!
5. Ear Plugs
Do I really need to elaborate?
I hope that these tips will help you in your holiday travels. Traveling with children is one of the worst parts of parenting but the great thing is that it usually happens only three times a year vacations, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Good luck!
The Rookie Dad can be reached at therookiedadblog@gmail.com and found on: Facebook|Twitter
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