8 Tips to Survive a Family Road Trip

by Gwendolyn Mulholland on March 15th, 2019 | No Comments »

The ultimate test of a family's strength or sanity is going on a family road trip. This doesn't have to be a cross country road trip but anything over 2 hours usually will do it. Let's face it, putting more than 3 people in a vehicle filled with luggage and setting out on a 8+ hour journey is certain to raise the blood pressure even before you pull out of the drive way. I had to test my theory so I loaded up the family this past weekend and headed to Hershey, Pennsylvania (from Michigan) where I was attending a blogging conference. This might not have been so bad if we had not already traveled 2 weekends out of the previous 4, but who's counting.

This time my mom was accompanying us so there were 5 people in total. During our trip there and back, I came up with 8 Tips to Survive a Family Road Trip. Some of these we implemented during the trip and some I will implement before the next trip. I will not ,however, travel without them in place ever again!

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8 Tips to Survive a Family Road Trip

Plan to have fun. The car is going to get crowded but remember you are all in this together.
Laugh! When things get stressful find something to laugh about. The stress will go away.
Switch seats at each rest stop. Siting next to a different family member breaks up the view and potential for sibling arguments.
Create Silly Travel Videos or Instagram Pictures to share your Trip with family and friends.
Give every passenger 30-45 minutes to have the ride "Their Way". Let them pick the music, lack of music, car game, sing songs, tell stories, or knock knock jokes. Everyone must participate if they want cooperation during their time. The rest of the time the Driver or Parents make the rules.
Give children their own spending money. This stops them from asking 100 times and you from saying No 100 times.. They can decide if they want something bad enough to spend their own money.
Impromptu Dance and Singing Parties with or without children's stuffed animals are a must. Make sure to capture (see #4)
Remember to have Fun, after all you are on vacation! If you aren't having fun what is the point!

This is how we survived our Family Road Trip and it was full of laughter that brought on tears. Laughter that was so contagious we had to share it with family and friends via Facebook. I just wish I had discovered these fun tips years ago when I fought to "control" the car. Now I seek to "un-control" the car because this way is so much more fun.

Featured image courtesy of Flickr

What are your best tips to survive a family road trip?

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Gwendolyn is a Christian Wife and Homeschooling mother. She has two children ages 10 and 15. She is the owner at Finding Sanity In Our Crazy Life and Manages and Writes at Vacation Maybe. In her free time she loves to read, bake,spend time with her family,travel and come up with more ideas for her blog.

You can find out what she is doing by following her on the following Social Media Channels:

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