Please please please tell me this gets better!

Spent a week at Sandbridge Beach VA on vacation with my wife and kids, her parents and her sister and husband and kids.

The vacation was nice but wow, getting to and from VA from PA with a 1 year old, a 4 year old and a 6 year old was not fun. The 6 hour drive turned into 8 hours with all the various potty break stops, stops to eat, stops to have the wife calm down a crying 1 year old girl, etc

Add the fact that we stopped numerous times in Maryland trying to find a f$@#cking fast food place that was actually open with dine in service with hungry kids with an increasingly irritated wife who is SO OVER all this Covid bullshit that has apparently turned half the worlds eateries into drive-thru only.

I’d like to think it gets easier as the kids get older and can handle long trips and entertain themselves more?

It gets better, but then the kids get older and want to control the radio. Then, one day before you know it, they get in their car and leave home. Cherish the time now.

Benadryl is your friend.

Back in May we went from PA to Myrtle beach with a 3 yr old. That girl peed in 5 different states going down. Luckily we bought a travel potty and she peed on the side of the road. She only napped for maybe 2 hrs. The saving grace was the ipad with movies downloaded.

I could not imagine 3 kids.

And I am so glad my kids are grown. BTW, traveling with kids is a pain. If you didn't know.

Vince

It's just something you have to get through. As they say, it is what it is. When they're older, some of the trips will be family lore and be pretty funny. I can't say I never got mad traveling but it didn't do any good. You'll get through it. We thought road trips in a 3 seat Suburban would make it easier, a row per kid. It did not.

My kids are 51 and 48. I'm sure they discovered the same joys of travelling with children. Now my grandchildren are having babies, so they are learning also.

At least half the folks I know in my age group are raising their grandchildren and/or great-grandchildren. I see relatively few intact family units. Be thankful!

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

I’d like to think it gets easier as the kids get older and can handle long trips and entertain themselves more?

More than once I serious considered sending the kids by UPS, to meet us at the vacation spot without the tsuris of travel.

You drive they fly. Problem solved. Your welcome.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
It gets better, but then the kids get older and want to control the radio. Then, one day before you know it, they get in their car and leave home. Cherish the time now.

I'm a grandfather now. As I watch my 4-year-old granddaughter worship her dad, my son-in-law, and vividly remember the day my daughter said she no longer needed to hold my hand, I can only echo the above advice: "Cherish the time now."

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Cherish the time now.

As you get older these times will some of your best memories and your children's.

I used this technique for long distance trips with family: I loaded the entire mess into the vehicle at 11 PM. Within about 30 minutes, the whole crew was asleep. Peaceful cruising ensued and I woke them up when we arrived at our destination. Less traffic too.
My parents simplified travel by beating us into unconsciousness for the duration of the trip. I understand that type of family travel is no longer socially acceptable.

I have a four and seven year old. I’m not sure if it gets better, but it does get different.

10, 7 & 1 here.
We did Houston > Destin this summer. Supposed to be an 8 hour drive. Took closer to 10.
14 on the return, due to construction in LA.

You just need to make more trips! We drive to my in-laws in FL several times a year, plus at least one long road trip out west for vacation, and my 4 kids are acclimated, now. They're 13, 11, 8 and 6, but we've been doing this since they were born. When the youngest was 2 months old, we did a 2 week road trip to CA towing a camper...it was crazy, but it was a blast and we have great memories. They know not to drink a bunch, because we're not stopping till we need gas, and they also know better than to mess with each other because dad has long arms and can reach back there if I have to! They don't have tablets or movies, either... entertainment is looking out the window, or whatever audiobook I have on to keep me awake.

We've started packing food, because even if you can find something open, it takes forever to stop, order, and eat...and it's gotten crazy expensive, especially as the kids get bigger and hungrier. We have stops down now. We try to find a truck stop or some other big gas station that's easy on/easy off the highway. My wife takes the kids to the bathroom while I gas up the suburban, then move it to a parking spot away from the pump. About the time I'm done with that, they're coming out. I go in to pee whole she makes and distributes sandwiches out of the cooler in the back. By the time I get back, she's usually about done and we're back on the road. 10-15 min max per stop, with all fuel, bathroom, and food needs satisfied.

With me working nights, we've also done what Yooper suggested on occasion...drive all night so they just sleep. I take the night shift, and my wife takes the day....it works out pretty well.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I’d like to think it gets easier

Yeah, but by then the dentures and Depends thing kicks in......

My kids always traveled great. Of course at the end it looked like someone tossed a pudding grenade that used Gold Fish shrapnel in the back seat.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
I have a four and seven year old. I’m not sure if it gets better, but it does get different.

This is about what I was going to say. Road trips are certainly easier now with two teenagers, they tend to put their headphones on and we don’t hear much from them anymore. Is it better? I mean I don’t worry about living through another hellish drive through the mountains at night with a screaming kid in the back who just wants out of his car seat, but a part of me sure misses the whole family singing along to some Disney CD or hearing cartoons coming from the DVD player in the back.

I truly enjoy my kids at this age, particularly my son as we are very similar, but I sure do miss them being tiny.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pale Horse,

We have a 6 and 4.5 year old. It’s getting better, but I still always say that we don’t go on vacation .. we just take care of our kids in a different city .

We didn’t start vacationing again until ours were 3 & 5. Any earlier would have been madness and fun for no one.