School Holidays are once again upon us and whether you’re embarking on an adventure Down South or just a day trip to visit some much-loved relatives, chances are a family road trip of some description is in your future plans.
But driving long kilometers in the car can be tiresome and stressful for everyone involved. From cranky babies, active preschoolers, moody tweens through to the exhausted adults answering the never ending barrage of “are we there yet? Here are some tips to make that road trip all the smoother.
Safety First
If you are travelling with children ensure that they are in the correct child restraint for their age, weight and height. This sounds like common sense, however in Western Australia alone, the leading cause of death and the third most frequent cause of hospitalization for children aged 0-14 years is transport related injury.
Plan Ahead
List everything that you are planning to take and have everything you will need on the trip at hand. Pack everything then try to cut it down by half, then when you have done that, try and half it again. Travelling light does not necessarily mean having to go without, it’s simply more practical.
Plan travel time around children’s sleep patterns and stop and regular intervals
If your children have a sleeping routine then trying to travel around these is always good. You can get in plenty of peaceful kilometers and the children can sleep through none the wiser and when they do wake up stop and take a break and let them have a run around.
By stopping at regular intervals it breaks up the monotony of driving and gives everyone a chance to take a breather. Everyone can stretch their legs, the driver gets their must needed break and the kids can burn off some of that unspent energy from being cooped up in the car.
Food, snacks and more snacks
Anyone with children will know that with boredom comes hunger. No matter how much a kid has had to eat, the appetite can be relentless when they are bored.
Packing food and snacks will help alleviate the boredom munchies and will also help in having to spend up big at service stations when you do need to stop for the toilet or fuel.
Prevent backseat meltdowns
Plan activities before you leave. In today’s world it seems the days are gone that children find the need to play the number plate game or the likes that we were once entertained with. With tablets, iPads, hand held gaming stations, portable DVD players and even vehicles with their own in built entertainment packages it seems that generally we don’t need to worry about planning activities before we leave. But even kids can have a technological overload. There are plenty of FREE resources available online for print outs and travel activities for kids. With a little time and effort, you can make up a folder of car game print outs, colouring pages and even car bingo.
