I Am The Walrus
| We will usually leave around 1-2am when we road trip. Pack the vehicle the day before so I can get some sleep prior to the drive. Wife and kid are sound asleep so I can drive in peace.
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אַרְיֵה
| quote: we bought a 6x10 enclosed trailer and we use that whenever traveling now.
Great idea! Do you use an intercom to talk to the kids in the trailer?
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים |
| | | Posts: 31697 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010 | 
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| quote: Originally posted by V-Tail: quote: we bought a 6x10 enclosed trailer and we use that whenever traveling now.
Great idea! Do you use an intercom to talk to the kids in the trailer?
I know you are joking but this reminded me of an instance where a man let his kids ride in a travel trailer on their way home from Ocean City, MD. The kids died from carbon monoxide poisoning. |
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אַרְיֵה
| quote: The kids died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Horrible. So sorry for the whole family.
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים |
| | | Posts: 31697 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010 |
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| quote: Originally posted by 92fstech:
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.
There are some good tips ^^^. I do think the frequency of long trips helps. My daughter (who's 26) has always been a good traveler - but we traveled frequently back to my home town which was an 8+ hour drive from the time she was born. She still enjoys road-trips w/ her dad  . Didn't have a lot of extra cash when she was little, so we'd pack our "traveling food" (Wraps, cheese, sandwich meats, veggies...). Super easy to pull over into a rest area and whip up some lunch. 92fstech's comment of "because dad has long arms and can reach back there if I have to", made me laugh because my dad had long arms too - I remember dad's right arm coming over the seat and each of us kids trying to maneuver away...  |
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| In the near future you will look back upon these times as the Halcyon years, seriously. So in the midst of the inconvenience and in-car travel miseries, know it will pay off with fond memories of the necessary, albeit sometimes seemingly unpleasant, stages of life all children must go through. It's not really fixable because there's nothing really wrong, except for your nerves getting rattled. But if you love your kids you will nevertheless enjoy the memories of all the stupid, comic miseries of early childhood, amidst all the good times too. But for trips specifically, any tips you can pick up from this thread are good if they work for you, up to and including bribery, deception, and good old fashioned spoilage. When travelling anything goes if it works. Not at home, but traveling definitely. Good luck fellow traveler.
Lover of the US Constitution
Wile E. Coyote School of DIY Disaster |
| | | Posts: 9082 | Location: Nowhere the constitution is not honored | Registered: February 01, 2008 |
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No, not like
Bill Clinton
| After our trip to Cancun a few months ago, the wife, myself and our 16 year old daughter. I told my wife we were never taking the daughter anywhere by herself again. She was very unpleasant, a real party pooper. Our last trip to the Panhandle we brought one of her friends, worked like a charm
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| No travel vacation for my family when the kids were under six years of age. I don't think when they are that young they care where they are, as long as someone is caring/entertain them. We would go 45 minutes away, that was enough time in the car. |
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Res ipsa loquitur
| Try traveling with five kids. Any trip was almost double the standard travel time
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Needs a check up
from the neck up
| my kids are 11 and 13 and have been about everywhre from boston to chicago to texas to florida. I find the key is to dump the i pad. its easy but it makes them dependent on it and kind of wires their brain up. Coloring books, car games, i spy, maybe a dvd on where you are going, plenty of snacks. then when you get to where your going and you and the wife want a quiet-ish dinner, then break out the ipad Until the 1 yo is 3 your doomed. Hang in there are treasure it, it will get easier but you will miss your kids passing out on you in crappy hotel, or helping them barf up a corndog that went wrong at a fair. All i can say is keep going.
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The entire reason for the Second Amendment is not for hunting, it’s not for target shooting … it’s there so that you and I can protect our homes and our children and and our families and our lives. And it’s also there as fundamental check on government tyranny. Sen Ted Cruz
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| | | Posts: 5210 | Location: Boca Raton, FL The Gunshine State | Registered: July 30, 2002 |
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Grandiosity is a sign
of mental illness
| Make use of highway rest areas to get the kids out of the car and running around, can do it when someone needs to stop anyway to pee.
Worked wonders when the kids were 4 and 6 and we did a few 15 hour drives. |
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goodheart
| Our grandkids are 3 1/2 and 1. I hope I'm still sentient when they are ready for a big USA road trip.
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“Remember, remember the fifth of November!"
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| | | Posts: 18616 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004 |
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chickenshit
| BTW just to clarify, going ANYWHERE with children is a TRIP. Going somewhere WITHOUT children is a VACATION.
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Yes, Para does appreciate humor.
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| | | Posts: 8000 | Location: East Central FL | Registered: January 05, 2009 |
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Eschew Obfuscation
| They can be pretty entertaining sometimes. We flew from Chicago to San Diego with 4 kids. My daughter was about 4 or 5 at the time and was seated next to me. Typical for O’Hare, we pulled away from the gate, then got shuttled off to the side somewhere to wait. About 45 mins later, my daughter asks in a voice that could be heard several rows away: “We’ve been on this plane forever! Are we there yet?” We finally take off and eventually get fed. My daughter took one bite of her chicken and announced: “This food is yucky. Daddy, I want a hot dog!” That comment got her applause from some of the other passengers.
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“One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.” – Thomas Sowell
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| | | Posts: 6643 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: December 17, 2007 |
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| last vacation i did with kids was Disneyland. I put my wife and daughter on a plane in Buffalo and took off in my Prelude. had a wonderful drive and met them at the condo. Easy, peasy.
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"Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God." --- G.K. Chesterton
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