Summer time is a great time for road tripping! Our family has recently discovered our ability to travel long distances, in the car… for hours and actually survive!
For the longest time, I didn’t think we could do this as a family. I think it all stemmed from one horrific experience when my twins were 9 months old and we attempted a road trip. They had never slept away from the house and I was still breast feeding. All things I thought would easily be adjusted and we could overcome! Boy was I sooooo wrong!! We barely made it through the first 2 nights of our 4 night stay and decided to leave early. No one was sleeping and EVERYONE was crying… babies and adults included!
Fast forward 9 years, and I finally thought we were ready to try again. With the kids now older, I needed to make sure they were entertained in the car for 10-12 hours. My husband had the brilliant idea of… HEADPHONES! This may be obvious to many, but my mind was more worried about boarding the dogs and did everyone pack enough underwear! Headphones were the furthest from my thoughts. Thank goodness for husbands… and their “unique” perspective.
Of course I would love to imagine that we are the family that happily hangs out, sings songs, plays games together for 10-12 hours… TOGETHER! But alas, we are just not!
So my recommendation is a good pair of headphones for EACH child in the car and making sure it works with their selected electronic device. This means correct cords or blue tooth capabilities, that they know how to turn it off and on and the correct charging cords! Things were much simpler in my childhood road tripping days. There was ONE kind of headphone jack in ANY device you wanted to plug into. We never had to worry about different cords, attachments, chargers and we could always buy more batteries if we needed to.
Let me tell you, what a peaceful drive! My husband and I could play the music we wanted to, discuss what we wanted to, or listen to the books on Audible that we wanted to. Our only problem was agreeing between the two of us (more on that later). But 12 hours of driving bliss, awesome 90s jams, and a little Harry Potter… made for one happy family by the time we arrived at our destination.
Thank you, HEADPHONES! My only suggestion, make sure they are all FULLY CHARGED the night before hitting the road. Another stroke of genius from our household tech support department (aka Hubby)!
Tell me what your one Road Trip must-have is below in the comments. I’d love to hear about your summer time road trips and what has been the most helpful to you for family peace!