Top Tips for Entertaining Kids on Road Trips

May 9, 2016

kid friendly park

Road trips can get long and tiresome, and on a family road trip, there’s an added risk. Young children can get loud and distracting when they’re bored, which in turn can distract driving parents. Better behaved and calm kids means a safer family on the road, so here are a few tips on how to keep kids distracted and entertained.

Play Box

First, get a large plastic tub, or one for each child that’s going to be riding along. Before going on your trip, let your child fill it up with whatever toys, games, coloring books, and other stuff they want to use on the trip. This also helps them prepare for the long trip in general and understand how long they’ll have to sit and wait in the car. As an alternative: if you have kids of varying ages, try having one box, and put the oldest in charge of handing out everything to the younger kids.

Interesting Stops

If your kids are bored out of their minds, stopping at any old gas station or rest stop along your journey will do them no favors. These days, with sites like Roadside America, it’s easy to find the most interesting places for a pit stop. While it doesn’t solve boredom in mid-drive, the bizarre or amusing roadside attractions they see can spark conversations that last until the next stop.

Snacks and Treats

Snacks are just for when your kids are hungry, and should kill a few dry minutes. Make sure they’re something easy to hand out and not messy, like Babybel cheeses. However, you should save the sweets and candy for that last painful half hour of driving. If your kids know they can have candy as a reward for making it nearly the whole way, it can inspire them to behave. It will also perk up their energy and get them excited about finishing the drive and getting out.

Guessing Games

Guessing games can be a useful way to keep everyone occupied, so bored parents aren’t left out of the fun. Twenty Questions and I Spy are the most common, but if you have an audio system that lets you search for different songs through apps, you can play Guess the Song. Just find a fairly common song, play the first five seconds, and see who can guess what it is first.

An Entertaining Upgrade

This is more of a forward-thinking strategy. If your current model doesn’t have things like a rear seat entertainment system, with screens for watching shows or movies, it may be a worthwhile investment to get one for your next vehicle. A decent movie will keep kids watching for hours, and with the advent of more advanced technology, a nice used model from the past ten years is more affordable than ever.

Children are tough to deal with on a long trip, but with these games and strategies you’re sure to have a calm and enjoyable family outing. Now, if only it were so easy to deal with people who don’t ask for directions!

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