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To Do What is
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Keep the kids awake all night the night before, they will sleep on long rides. This works for lots of things. Did the same before I had a surgery scheduled early in the morning a few years ago, came home and slept the anesthesia off and some of the pain.
 
Posts: 2439 | Location: Usually Somewhere | Registered: July 28, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I Am The Walrus
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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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Posts: 13047 | Registered: March 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I feel your pain. My parents moved to FL around 9 years ago. Well we got the brilliant idea when our triplets where almost 3 and our oldest being almost 5 to start going down to visit.

The first trip down was pure hell. We left mid day with the intent of driving through the night and arriving at my parents house early morning. Driving through the night with the kids in car seats was a complete crap show. One would wake up screaming, so whoever was trying to sleep would climb in the back and calm them down. Climb back up front only for 10 minutes later the next one to wake up and it just went in a circle. If I got an hour of sleep in the 6 hours my wife drove that night I would be shocked.

As the years have progressed they've gotten much better at traveling and now being 10 and 8 they've got it down for the most part. Last summer we bought a 6x10 enclosed trailer and we use that whenever traveling now. It allows us to bring essentially whatever we want including the kids bikes, multiple coolers, and food for the week. We also started putting a camping toilet in it and now our fuel/restroom stops are 15-20 minutes. We also now leave around 1-2 in the morning which gives me a few hours of driving in peace and also gets us south of Richmond before rush hour hits. By the time the sun finally starts to rise is when I'm beginning to feel the effects of driving in the dark which works out well. We usually arrive at our destination around 7-8 pm that same night with driving straight through.

In short yes it does get better, but it will be a giant PIA getting to that point
 
Posts: 782 | Location: PA  | Registered: December 05, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
אַרְיֵה
Picture of V-Tail
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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: 30545 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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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.
 
Posts: 3229 | Location: MD | Registered: March 23, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
אַרְיֵה
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The kids died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Horrible. So sorry for the whole family.



הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
 
Posts: 30545 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I feel your pain. Having little ones and traveling long distances can be tricky. Looking back on it, I have to laugh at what we did and the things we learned. I still wouldn't trade the memories for anything, both good and bad.
 
Posts: 6840 | Location: Treasure Coast,Fl. | Registered: July 04, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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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 Smile .

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... Big Grin
 
Posts: 1799 | Location: MN | Registered: March 29, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Just drove 2955 miles roundtrip from Texas to WV and back through Kentucky with a 2.5 year old. Luckily he was pretty good on the road for the most part. Definitely don't want to do it again any time soon.
 
Posts: 1181 | Location: DFW Metromess | Registered: May 20, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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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: 8634 | Location: Nowhere the constitution is not honored | Registered: February 01, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No, not like
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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



 
Posts: 5302 | Location: GA | Registered: September 23, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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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.
 
Posts: 437 | Registered: February 17, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
chickenshit
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A 40 foot class A motorhome makes road trips much more pleasant. My three could, sleep, eat, and potty all while staying 10' away from me.


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Posts: 8000 | Location: East Central FL | Registered: January 05, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Res ipsa loquitur
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Try traveling with five kids. Any trip was almost double the standard travel time


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Posts: 12436 | Registered: October 13, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Needs a check up
from the neck up
Picture of Timdogg6
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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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Posts: 5131 | Location: Boca Raton, FL The Gunshine State | Registered: July 30, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Grandiosity is a sign
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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.
 
Posts: 2453 | Location: MO | Registered: March 07, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
goodheart
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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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Posts: 18017 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
chickenshit
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BTW just to clarify, going ANYWHERE with children is a TRIP.

Going somewhere WITHOUT children is a VACATION.


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Posts: 8000 | Location: East Central FL | Registered: January 05, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Eschew Obfuscation
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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. Big Grin


_____________________________________________________________________
“Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again." - Will Durant
 
Posts: 6373 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: December 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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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
 
Posts: 3856 | Location: WNY | Registered: April 11, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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