Survival of a Road Trip With Four Kids - Survival Of A Suburban Mom

We did it! We survived a twenty-two hour road trip with four kids! I was so anxious about driving from Chicago to Florida, with a 14-year-old, 5-year-old, 3-year-old, and a 18 month old. I had no idea what to expect and knew it could very easily go both ways! I tried to prepare myself in every way possible to make this ride as smooth as possible.

With that being said, I’m pretty impressed at myself and my husband! I was joking about it for a few weeks before hand that this could cause us a divorce if it didn’t go well. I’m proud to say we passed the road trip with four kids didn’t end in divorce test! Another knot in our marriage belts! So what did we do that made it so successful?!? Don’t you worry, I’ll share what I learned! 😉

Patience

I think that going into this road trip with as much patience with the kids and each other was a big part of it all. Knowing that everyone is out of their element. Being in a car for that long is essentially camping, but on wheels. Acknowledging the fact that everyone was trying to make the best of the long ride and having patience with one and other really helped us.

Making Stops

To be honest I thought we would be making more stops than we had to make. Guess who had to make the most stops… ME!! I guess getting older means your bladder gets smaller! We also had a few instances where we would get back on the road and twenty minutes later my 3-year-old would say those dreaded words… I have to go potty! Every time we stopped it would take a good twenty minutes or longer for everyone to use the rest room, and of course grab a snack. And when we stopped for food, which mostly consisted of fast food, that took about an hour to get everyone their food and get situated back in the car.

Rest Stops

We decided to start stopping at the rest stops instead of getting of the highway, it was so much easier to get on and off and saved a lot of time! Another great thing about the rest stops, is most of them are beautiful, this might depend on the route you’re taking. I mean the bathrooms are pretty clean. But they have really stepped up these rest stops over the years ( or at least from what I remember growing up) they have great views and are filled with information about the state you’ve stopped in!

Timing

We planned out our trip and the route we planned to take a few weeks before we left. We planned everything out and figured how far we wanted to make it before stopping to sleep. Deciding to leave at 4 A.M. gave us time to load the car up the night before and get some sleep. I was hoping that the kids would go right back to sleep, but that was wishful thinking. Even with that hiccup it wasn’t bad. Waking them up that early meant they napped on and off in the car!

Entertainment

Road trip entertainment is key! iPads, Phones and our Car DVD player were all lifesavers! But even with all the electronics it wasn’t enough. I put together little road trip baskets. I found these trays to play with littler toys, and puzzles as well as eat. They were AMAZING for eating in the car! I even ended up using one to eat my salads on. I found them at the Target dollar spot, but the dollar tree or even Walmart may even carry them. The baskets were great for keeping the kids activities all together.