7.

When I think about road trips, my mind automatically goes to that old “RV” movie with Robin Williams. You know… the one with the “mean, green” RV-styled, family vacation?

Yep, that’s the one I’m talking about. This movie is such an accurate depiction of every family road trip my family has ever taken. In a good way though; I mean, who doesn’t love a good dysfunctional vacation??? Aside from the constant “are we there yet” and your brothers smelly feet, it’s not that bad, right?

Wrong.

Up until this last year, every vacation I had ever been on was a road trip. My dad hates flying, but all of his favorite vacation spots are at least 15 hours by car. You would think that with such a long drive, we would take our time and explore the places we drive through on the way. Any normal person would break this drive up into a few days, but my family??

Nope.

The morning of a road trip, my dad would wake us up at 4 a.m. to start getting ready. By 4:30 a.m. we were all in the car, seat belts on, pillows in place, and the old trusty atlas within arms reach. (Yes we used an atlas. This was 2003 and the GPS hadn’t been invented yet!!!)  The goal here was to make it to where ever we were going in time for dinner.

Side note: At the time these trips were happening regularly, my brother and I were probably 6 and 8. That means that my mom and dad regularly took two annoying, stinky children and sat in a tiny truck with them for an entire day. No wonder they both turned out crazy by the time I got to college!!!

Along with this, we are from east Texas and the most common spot we went was Colorado. If you’ve ever driven through Texas, you know that once you get to West Texas and the Panhandle, there’s not much of a view. That means that the majority of our drive was through the desert

Did this involve a lot of speeding?

Yes.

Did we get pulled over a lot?

Never in Texas, but other states, yes.

Did we learn a lot of “road game”?

In fact, we did.

Which brings me to the main point of this post: If you ever find yourself trapped in the car with your smelly children, here are some games you can play to keep them from causing chaos and to make time go by a little bit faster than usual!!

Play the Quiet Game:

We all know what game I’m talking about. Most elementary teachers use this game on a daily basis to keep their sanity. Well, you can play this a few different ways, but the most effective way for me was to give incentive. For example, “whoever stays quietest the longest can pick the next song!” Or if your kids have a crappy taste in music and you don’t feel like listening to a boy band, “whoever is quietest gets to ride shotgun for the next leg of the trip!” Or if your kids have a crappy taste in music AND they’re too young to ride in the front seat….. Stay at home?? This is the reason our parent’s hair turned gray. Save yourself.

Play Slug Bug

If you ride in my car, you are fully aware that this game never ends. You are probably also as aware of how rare it is to see one of these cars outside of city limits. Your smelly kids however, will search intently for miles with the hopes that they get to hit someone else. There are some concerns with this game though; will it teach your kids to be a violent person?? Nah, not unless your kid is already a psychopath!!

Sing Along to Loud Music

This might sound super annoying, but it could honestly be super fun too! Obviously you would have to pick age appropriate music, but who doesn’t love signing in the car?? Just let loose and forget about how stressful the drive is!

License Plate Game

This is a game that I’m pretty sure my parents made up just to keep us occupied. There really wasn’t a specific point to the game, but when we saw an out of state license plate we had to read the state out loud. This means that your kids must be able to read, but at that point, you could add some incentives to make it more interesting! For example, you could let the person who got the most points for Maine (or any specific state) pick where you ate dinner.

Nap

I think everyone but the driver can get on board with this game! Especially if you’re like my family and leave super early in the morning. Everyone is going to get tired and cranky at some point during the day, so why not just sleep?? Nothing passes time better like closing your eyes and taking a nap! By the time you wake up, you will be a little bit closer to the destination!

 

Now, I’m no expert at road tripping with children. But I am an expert at road tripping with adults and I remember how annoying I could be! If you’re planning a long road trip soon, I’d definitely keep these games in mind! Or leave the kids at home… that works better!