Traveling With Kids This Holiday? 20 Proven Tips You'll Be Glad To Know

Join Caitlin Kindred and Jenny GK as they share their proven tips and advice for traveling with kids. From creating an emergency car care kit with spare clothes and cleaning supplies to what to do when your kid starts screaming on the plane, these strategies will make your journeys smoother and more enjoyable. And, when all else fails and your toddler gets car sick and you run out of spare clothes? Don’t worry, they can relate. 


Caitlin and Jenny are not only parents of young children but also seasoned travelers who know the ins and outs of hitting the road with kids in tow. With their down-to-earth and friendly personalities, CK and GK bring a relatable and personable touch to the topic of traveling with kids. Their practical strategies and tips are backed by their own experiences, so you know they’re both credible and trustworthy. Whether you're a novice traveler or a seasoned pro, Caitlin and Jenny’s insights will help you navigate the challenges of traveling with young children and turn those long trips into fun and memorable adventures. Hooray for stress-free journeys with your kids!

This episode helps you

• Discover how to overcome the challenges of traveling with kids and make your family trips more enjoyable.
• Learn valuable tips for air travel with children, ensuring a smoother experience for both kids and parents.
• Explore effective strategies for road trips with kids that will keep them entertained and engaged throughout the journey.
• Find out about a variety of entertainment options for long journeys, making sure your kids stay entertained and happy.
• Understand the importance of preparation and organization when traveling with kids, and learn how to make it a breeze.

A few tips for air travel from this episode:

• DO spring for the travel insurance if you can. It will provide peace of mind in case any unexpected situations arise during your trip.
• DO book seats together: Don't rely on the kindness of strangers to switch seats—they’re under no obligation to move for you.
• DON’T forget to pack spare outfits in your carry-on. Include everything (hello, socks and undergarments) to ensure you have a complete backup wardrobe.
• DON’T check medications! You’ll need those in your carry-on just in case your bag is lost on the trip.

Get the full list of travel tips and resource websites in this episode’s blog post, here.

• Ten Tips for Flying with Kids | Today's Parent https://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/10-tips-for-taking-your-kids-on-an-airplane/
• How To Do A Long Family Road Trip | Home, Cleaning, Family https://homecleaningfamily.com/long-road-trip-with-kids/

The best support is a rating and a share.

Love,
CK & GK

Transcript

00:00:00 - Caitlin Kindred
Hey, friends, the holiday season is upon us, and you know what that means. Yep. You've got to travel with kids. So with that in mind, here's the replay of our traveling with kids episode to help you stay sane, whether you're traveling by air or road. Best of luck.

00:00:17 - Jenny GK
It's Tuesday.

00:00:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Hooray. You're here. We're so glad.

00:00:23 - Jenny GK
Welcome to CK and GK. We're so happy to teach you all the things that we had to learn the hard way.

00:00:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Hopefully not all the things. There's so many. Oh, goodness.

00:00:37 - Jenny GK
Okay, so with me today is Caitlin. I'm going to nickname her Webster because she gives meaning to my life.

00:00:44 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, how sweet of you. Well, she's got it, dude. Michelle Tanner over here, she just spit out her drink, you guys. She just spit out her drink. Yes. I hope you all heard it. It was amazing.

00:01:04 - Jenny GK
Oh, great, dude. I think we're funnier when we record at night than when we record first thing in the morning.

00:01:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Listen, it's been a long day, y'all. We are in our jammies right now.

00:01:19 - Jenny GK
We are.

00:01:20 - Caitlin Kindred
I got my blue light glasses on, so that right after this, I can just take them off and go right to sleep.

00:01:27 - Jenny GK
My husband has been out of town all week, and I am so excited to have him back because I miss him and stuff, but also because I need a partner.

00:01:38 - Caitlin Kindred
Also because it's hard. Yeah. The people who are, like, single parents, you all do God's work. Because I can. When my husband was gone for, like, three days in June, I nearly lost my mind. Now, granted, I didn't have school to save me. Right. I couldn't send my child to school and get anything done. He had, like, morning camp, and he was there for, like, two and a half hours. You can get nothing done in two and a half hours. Just FYI.

00:02:06 - Jenny GK
Abby and I were on our own for about a year and a. Yeah. And I look back on it and said, how did I stay alive during that time? How was I a single mom for a year and a half?

00:02:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. People who do that, it's not an easy task, and I commend y'all for it. Yeah, exactly. Commend.

00:02:22 - Jenny GK
In fact, like, shout out to right.

00:02:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly.

00:02:25 - Jenny GK
Single parents.

00:02:26 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly. Okay, so now we're back. All right, so as Jenny mentioned earlier exactly. As Jenny mentioned earlier, she was supposed to be traveling this weekend. Yeah, too bad. Again, all of our love and extra funds are going to go to the people of Florida right now, but fall travel season is here, and there are fall breaks coming. Some people get a full week for fall break. Some people get long weekends right around the corner with, like, indigenous people's day, Columbus day, et cetera. So Jenny and I thought we would give some advice for traveling with kids, because traveling by yourself is already hard enough, and then you add to it a small person who depends on you for their life gets a little bit more complicated.

00:03:22 - Jenny GK
Okay. So I'm going to start with some advice from a pediatrician in 1991 when we were flying from South Carolina to Tokyo.

00:03:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, that sounds like a nightmare flight.

00:03:40 - Jenny GK
Yeah. Because it wasn't just one, right. That's several legs of travel. And the pediatrician looked at my mom and said, I want you to take the normal dose of diamond tap and double it for all three of your kids.

00:03:56 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, man.

00:03:58 - Jenny GK
And if that doesn't work, you take the rest.

00:04:05 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Because you definitely want to sedate yourself. Oh, my gosh. But also, 1991, this is a different time.

00:04:13 - Jenny GK
Oh, yeah. So I am going to just kind of highlight some ideas for traveling with children on a plane. First thing I'm going to tell you is the same thing I tell everyone, you need to get insurance. Get travel insurance. It just makes such a difference if something happens. Kids are sick, whatever, you know that you're covered. So if that's something that you can afford to do, get the travel insurance again. If you can afford to do it, book a direct or a non stop flight.

00:04:43 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:04:44 - Jenny GK
Book your seats together. Do not rely on the kindness of strangers. It's not reasonable to expect that people will give up their seats so you can sit together.

00:04:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:04:56 - Jenny GK
If you are flying on an airline like Southwest that's pick your own seat, do that. Check in as soon as you can.

00:05:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. And if they have it done for you.

00:05:05 - Jenny GK
Right. If they offer for boarding early, board early, read so many posts and stories of families who bought four tickets but ended up with three and one. And it's not reasonable to expect that another passenger is going to trade seats with you so that you can sit together as a family. As much as I would love to say that the goodness and kindness of everyone's heart is to do that, but you don't know their story. They might be flying home from their parents funeral and be heartbroken, and the last thing they want to do is give up their window seat because they thought they were going to lean up against the wall and sleep. Book your seats together if you can.

00:05:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I absolutely agree.

00:05:53 - Jenny GK
All right. Mark your luggage so it's easy to spot, because when you get off the plane after this adventure, don't hang out at baggage claim trying to figure out which one is yours. Mark them.

00:06:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Like some kind of weird strap or I tied like a really jacked up haphazard ribbon on one of them at one point, and I was like, no one else is going to do this. Yeah, do something.

00:06:14 - Jenny GK
I put a monogram sticker on mine.

00:06:16 - Caitlin Kindred
You're so extra.

00:06:20 - Jenny GK
Look, I have a friend with a cricut. I said, hey, can you print off a monogram so I could slap it on my luggage.

00:06:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh.

00:06:24 - Jenny GK
I was like, yes.

00:06:25 - Caitlin Kindred
Did you buy it from Etsy.

00:06:27 - Jenny GK
No.

00:06:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:06:29 - Jenny GK
And it's fancy and it's cute and I love it, but really, it was, like $3 to have my friend make.

00:06:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, that's worth it. That's fine.

00:06:38 - Jenny GK
I see my luggage when it comes off the rack. Okay, that's true. Now, speaking of luggage, pack light for the plane. Check as much stuff as you can.

00:06:48 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm going to add something to this. You finish. Go say what you're going to say.

00:06:51 - Jenny GK
Well, I was going to say, this is another one that comes down to cost, right? Like, if you're flying on Southwest and it's two bags free and you're bringing two kids with you, you bet. Both those kids are checking two bags. Yeah, they might be none of their stuff in those bags, but check them so that your hands are free to wrangle your kids.

00:07:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. I'm also going to say though, with the carry on thing pack just like a Ziploc bag, like a gallon Ziploc bag of everyone's outfit in their carry on, like a spare outfit for every kid in the event that your bag gets lost. Then you have at least one other outfit that is complete with socks, shirt, undergarments, all the things. And then you have that. So that would probably be the only thing that I would say. If you have to go super light on your bag, just don't forget to do that.

00:07:40 - Jenny GK
And I do that for myself. Even when I'm traveling alone, I always make sure that I have one other outfit that is kind of universal, like maybe a black linen dress or something that I could wear anywhere in case my bag doesn't make it. The other thing in case your bag doesn't make it is meds.

00:07:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Don't ever check your med. Put them in your carry on.

00:08:03 - Jenny GK
All right. Now, assuming that your kids are either potty trained or walking, you want to do bathroom and as much activity at the airport before you get on the flight as possible.

00:08:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Did you see the guy at Dia who was walking his toddler on the moving walkway, but he was walking him.

00:08:25 - Jenny GK
Backwards, and I knew it was like a treadmill. Yeah, exactly.

00:08:30 - Caitlin Kindred
It was like, when you have a toddler and you're about to get on a flight, it made me laugh so hard. I'm like that's. Definitely like terminal B at dia. That's hilarious.

00:08:40 - Jenny GK
Yeah. Play the ice by. Play the scavenger hunt. Do a progressive dinner and say there's five different restaurants in the airport and we're going to go to each one and try something different.

00:08:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Let's taste all of the fries. Yeah, exactly. I'm into it. That's a good idea.

00:08:57 - Jenny GK
If the kids are older and you happen to be in an international airport, go to the duty free shop and play Supermarket Sweep. Who can find the most expensive item? Who can find the funniest item, the weirdest thing, the most fake item. Right. Like, here's a sweatshirt that says welcome to Austin, but it's clearly, like, just screen printed on there. It's not Austin at. So assuming that you've gotten some of their energy out, get on the plane and sit where you should.

00:09:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:09:34 - Jenny GK
Not where you want. If your tickets aren't right, if you didn't get the seats together, whatever it is, sit where you should. If you are traveling with children, don't sit in the exit row. The first thing the flight attendant is going to tell you is, you're not 16. You can't sit in the exit row.

00:09:49 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:09:50 - Jenny GK
Read the expectations for lap children. The flight attendants do have to come and have a talk with you about how to do your lap kids, but go into the experience with the knowledge that you're not surprised by any of the expectations. Y'all, I know that we have told you this over and over and over again in all different ways, but do your homework right. Don't go in blind.

00:10:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. I have to say, the lap thing, you think that it's going to be a great situation if you can afford to buy the other seat and put the car seat in the seat. I would highly recommend doing that so that you have your hands free during the flight. It's not easy to have a kid on your lap the whole time. I flew with my son when he was little a lot, and that's a pretty difficult thing. Now. That said, the seats are very close together these days and your car seat might not fit, so you might have to do the lap kid thing. And if you're flying with a baby, if it's a baby baby, like a little one that you can put in a pack on you wear your baby.

00:10:55 - Jenny GK
Wear your baby.

00:10:56 - Caitlin Kindred
Wear the baby. Wear the baby. Wear the baby because it's good for both of you. You are going to have your hands free. You can comfort the baby as soon as possible, but just know when you get in that seat on the plane, they're going to come tell you that you can't wear the baby while the plane is taking off and landing. You're going to have to take the baby out of the baby carrier, put the baby on your lap, hold it appropriately, and then you can put it back in the baby carrier once the plane is up in the air. So just keep that in mind.

00:11:24 - Jenny GK
Bring new entertainment. Novel is the name of the game. I'm talking three to four new toys per hour. Now, these might be three to four new Hot Wheels. They might be three to four new pages in a coloring book. I'm not talking about we're buying 2030 $40 toys here. No, but you got to have new stuff. And I'm sorry, but we ain't counting calories on this plane.

00:11:54 - Caitlin Kindred
No stuff.

00:11:55 - Jenny GK
The kids full of food.

00:11:57 - Caitlin Kindred
This is good for a couple of reasons. One, I mean, we all know that snacks make everyone happy, including mommy, so there's that. But also I would highly recommend including a lollipop in there for older kids because of ear issues on planes. And my mom when I was a kid, always made me chew gum. But some kids like my own child. If I give him a lollipop, he bites it pretty quickly. The patience just isn't there. I don't trust him with gum just yet. So lollipops would be good for that. And if they're not good with lollipops, snacks are going to help them keep.

00:12:38 - Jenny GK
Swallowing the ear pressure so it'll help.

00:12:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Them with the ear pressure. So snacks are really intentional here.

00:12:45 - Jenny GK
It's almost as if you read my mind or the show notes.

00:12:51 - Caitlin Kindred
I swear I didn't read the show.

00:12:52 - Jenny GK
Notes because that was the next thing I was going to say is lollipops are great for takeoff and landing and if your kids are old enough, talk to them about the ear pressure. Let them know what to expect and say your ears might hurt a little bit. They might pop. Teach them the val salva maneuver where they hold their nose and pop their you know, I hear Daniel tiger in my head when we do something new, let's talk about what we'll do. I mean, tell them tell them what to expect. Okay. Also, when you are packing, one of the things you should not bring by any means, you must leave your pride at home.

00:13:36 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh. I was like, what item your babies.

00:13:40 - Jenny GK
Or toddlers are going to cry and that's okay.

00:13:45 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:13:46 - Jenny GK
They're people judge and you're going to get judgment from others, especially those who do not have young children. It might be parents who have older children and are like, oh, well, my baby never cried on a blade.

00:13:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes, they did.

00:13:59 - Jenny GK
Or it might be people who have not had children. Or it might be people whose children are old enough to have children of their own. It doesn't matter. As long as you are trying, you're golden, right? I'm doing the best I can. And that's all we can ask of you, right? Babies cry on planes. Toddlers get restless. Leave the pride at home. Don't worry about it. It's normal.

00:14:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:14:24 - Jenny GK
If you can nurse or feed during takeoff and landing, go for it. And unless Benny Benadryl is coming on the trip, don't expect that your kids are going to sleep on the plane.

00:14:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, that's a hard mean when Sam was a little would we would expect nurse and then sleep. Right, right. It never happened. I would nurse during takeoff. Nothing. He would not sleep.

00:14:52 - Jenny GK
So it was not that's like instincts. Caitlin, think about it. This baby is nervous about what's going on. This is a weird environment. His body feels weird. There's people around him. He doesn't know there's weird sounds, weird smells.

00:15:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Mommy's probably a little stressed, right. It's not an easy he can't sleep.

00:15:11 - Jenny GK
Because he needs to stay awake to survive.

00:15:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? Totally get it.

00:15:18 - Jenny GK
All right, so I'm passing the baton to you. Now that we've got off the plane, we still have to drive to get to our destination.

00:15:27 - Caitlin Kindred
The driving part is some people think it's going to be easier. It's not necessarily easier. Right. And now I have only done short road trips with my child. We're talking like an hour to 5 hours max. So I really am coming from that place. So I did get a little bit of help from a couple of websites, which I'll make sure to link in the blog post for this show Notes.

00:15:52 - Jenny GK
Wait, you've never driven to Nashville for a day trip?

00:15:56 - Caitlin Kindred
No, I'm good. The longest road trip I've ever taken was when I drove from Austin to my family in Denver, and it is a 14 hours drive that I did in one day. I did it by myself and eleven of those hours were in Texas. I spent an hour in New Mexico and then 2 hours in Colorado, but the rest of it was all in Texas. That doesn't tell you how big this state is. Then I don't know what will.

00:16:32 - Jenny GK
So in 2017, when the total eclipse happened, we drove to Nashville to see it, but we didn't get a hotel, so we drove also 14 hours to Nashville, stayed in town for about six to watch the eclipse, then turn around and drove back.

00:16:50 - Caitlin Kindred
I remember this. I remember when you did that. Oh my gosh. I had forgotten that part of it.

00:16:58 - Jenny GK
But oh, so dumb. So dumb.

00:17:02 - Caitlin Kindred
I think you came to work pretty quickly right after that.

00:17:06 - Jenny GK
We arrived with 30 minutes. Enough time for me to shower and come to work.

00:17:11 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes, you did. Because it was over a weekend or.

00:17:13 - Jenny GK
Something or it was like the Eclipse happened on Monday.

00:17:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:17:16 - Jenny GK
And you were back at work Sunday, went to the Eclipse on Monday, drove Monday night to arrive at school on Tuesday morning.

00:17:23 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, you were back on Tuesday morning.

00:17:25 - Jenny GK
Stupid.

00:17:26 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Not the best decision you've made, but I know why you did it, so it's okay. So I'm just going to say I hope you left early when you did that trip.

00:17:35 - Jenny GK
It was super late, but same idea.

00:17:38 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay. So the reason that I'm saying leave early or I guess super late, is that you want your kids to be sleepy. So the sleepier they are, the better for you. One, because obviously you don't have to deal with nightmarish behavior during that time, but also it helps them when they wake up and they're like, oh, we're that much closer. It just shortens the duration of them feeling bored.

00:18:00 - Jenny GK
Very psychological.

00:18:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly. In the car, stay organized with what you're packing as much as possible. Keep things that you know you're going to need either in the cabin of the car with you or make little stashes of things that you can put in front of you and around easily accessible. So things like suction cup, shower caddies that you can stick onto windows to have kids have an extra storage space. This is a really good idea. If you have an over the door shoe organizer, you can just get them from the dollar store and kind of cut them in half and have one part go over one seat and one go over another. And the kids can store their stuff in there. Or you can go a little bit more hardcore. And there's some good ones on various websites. And I'll link one that I have in my car that is helpful for staying organized with things like that.

00:18:54 - Jenny GK
Oh, my gosh. You know what we did with one of those shoe organizers? I'm so proud. We hung it over our pantry door and we use it for our to go coffee trucks and water bottles.

00:19:02 - Caitlin Kindred
That's smart. So when we had a bigger pantry than we do now, when it was like a full closet door, I used it to put spices in.

00:19:11 - Jenny GK
Oh, that's clever too.

00:19:12 - Caitlin Kindred
And now I use one on the back of my laundry room door and that's where I put cleaning supplies.

00:19:17 - Jenny GK
Very smart.

00:19:18 - Caitlin Kindred
All right, thank you.

00:19:18 - Jenny GK
Continue on.

00:19:19 - Caitlin Kindred
So, yeah, you can just cut one of those up and put them in the car on the seat in front of your child. Again, you're going to need to bring entertainment. And I recommend varying this up a little bit. So we're talking visual and audio. If your child can handle motion sickness issues, if they can watch movies, I would highly recommend if they can't audiobooks are a good alternative songs or playlists that they really like. If they can play video games because they don't get motion sickness, that's another good option. Bring some non tech ones too, because everyone's eyes get tired. Even kids who are addicted to screens like my own. So drawing materials. You can make little Lego sets that would be good for fitting in the car. You can just put them in a little tiny box and have them use those things like a travel desk. You can go to a craft store and get like an over the lap desk really inexpensive. Some of them have like a cup holder and everything.

00:20:22 - Jenny GK
Like a little pocket that lifts up and you can put materials inside.

00:20:25 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly. That's a really good thing to have. We bring that every time we go on a road trip with my son, and it works really well for him. And I would consider also as a backup for when they're bored with entertaining themselves, bring some family games. There's some really good ones. Like you can just play inexpensive license plate game. Mad Libs. I spy Scavenger hunt. They have like kits for the road that you can do or you can just make it up right on your.

00:20:53 - Jenny GK
You can play My Cow.

00:20:55 - Caitlin Kindred
What's? My Cow. Tell everyone how to play.

00:20:58 - Jenny GK
Okay, so as you're driving, if you see a herd of cows, the first person to call that's my cow gets that herd. Now, every herd counts as one cow. Okay?

00:21:10 - Caitlin Kindred
What if there's, like, a loaner that's, like, off in the side?

00:21:14 - Jenny GK
That can be one.

00:21:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:21:16 - Jenny GK
If it's divided up fence.

00:21:18 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:21:19 - Jenny GK
Right. That's how we play. If there's a fence, then it counts as a herd. Okay, so you can count your cows. We collect horses, tractors, barns. We get kind of ridiculous with it. But if you drive past the cemetery, first person to say, all your cows are dead kills off all the other people's cows.

00:21:37 - Caitlin Kindred
This is a fun game. I like it. That's a good one. Okay, so I would highly recommend family games like that just to keep everyone sort of sharp. So the other thing is, if you have multiple children, you might poo poo this idea and that's okay, but sometimes kids can entertain each other. So if you have rear facing kiddos, put them in the middle row and then have your kids who are front facing face them, and then they can talk to each other and entertain each other. And you can also do it so that big kids can sit close to grown ups, and then they can be the ones who help out when needed. They can be the ones who pass food around, snacks, stuff like that. All right, so there's a lot of things that you can do to entertain your kids. Tons of great websites. So I linked a couple that you'll be able to find in the blog post for this week. I just mentioned I did as well. Oh, you did? Yeah.

00:22:34 - Jenny GK
I've got a couple of links, like ten things to do on planes, 13 different things to do at the airport. Some of them I do not endorse.

00:22:40 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, me too.

00:22:42 - Jenny GK
But it's a fun article to read, and you can decide what's right for your family.

00:22:45 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? The reason that I have these linked is because there's at least a few where I was like, yeah, that's a good idea. Right?

00:22:51 - Jenny GK
That's me too.

00:22:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. And some people are just more extra than I am. That's just all there is to it. I mentioned snacks and big kids helping. You need to plan ahead with snacks. It's the same thing as being on a plane and FYI on a plane, you can bring snacks for kids, even if they are liquid snacks, like an applesauce packet or whatever. You just have to show them to TSA and they'll scan them and it's all fine in a car. Doesn't matter. You just need to have as many snacks as possible. I highly recommend, like, a bento box or I've seen tackle boxes for the people who are using for snacks. I thought it was a really smart idea. Or like those craft thread boxes that you can use. I call it at our house, we call it big snack and we'll put a bunch of little different snacks and foods into an ice cube tray that has a lid. So we do big snack. It's like a baby charcuterie board.

00:23:44 - Jenny GK
Yeah, we just call it a baby shark board.

00:23:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Baby Shark.

00:23:47 - Jenny GK
I don't think my children know that Shark stands for charcuterie.

00:23:50 - Caitlin Kindred
No they don't.

00:23:51 - Jenny GK
It's just baby shark board.

00:23:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. Well we don't call it a charcuterie board for him either. We just call it Big Stack but we'll put like a nugget in one and like ketchup in another. You know what I mean? You just kind of mix it up. But obviously for a road trip please don't put nuggets and loose ketchup in a baby shark board. Okay. And I would recommend things that like anything that you could do to vary it up a little bit so that it's kind of entertaining to have them pick out their snacks is going to be helpful. You're also going to need to do some planning here. Again, do your homework. You want to schedule your stops for gas and bathrooms and include at least one stop where everyone can move around for a little while for 20 to 30 minutes. My recommendation just based on what I've experienced is about one fun stop for every 4 hours of driving in the car. Otherwise it's kind of a lot for everyone. 4 hours is probably the max.

00:24:46 - Jenny GK
And if you're looking for the largest buoy knife it's in Bowie, Texas. Your whole family can enjoy this. It's like 20ft long.

00:24:57 - Caitlin Kindred
I mean if you want to find all those weird things there's a great website called Road Trippers and I have it here in the notes and you can plan out all these kinds of stops and find weird stuff that you're going to be around and have everyone check it out.

00:25:12 - Jenny GK
If nothing else you are giving your kids Fodder for therapy, right?

00:25:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Exactly. That's what they can be in their.

00:25:19 - Jenny GK
Thirty s and say they made me take pictures in front of the largest peanut world's largest pecan ball of Twine.

00:25:31 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. Oh goodness. Okay. Another thing you can do to help with your children being bored is you can actually help them track the progress. So we all know how satisfying it is to watch the little dots on your phones as you travel right along your route. Well they can't see that and you're not going to hand them your phone the whole time. So you can do a couple of things. I have seen people print out maps and then you put the map somewhere where your kid can see and then as you get to a certain spot on the map you put a little star sticker or something like that so they can see the progress that's happening. That's one way to do it. The other thing you could do, which is another option that I particularly like is if you're planning a four hour trip, make four little goodie bags. Tiny, inexpensive things. Maybe a special snack, maybe a Hot Wheels car, maybe a new Crayon box. Whatever it is, put something in a goodie bag and every hour or every 50 miles or every, I don't know, gas station, you give the child, the kids, one of the goodie bags, they get to choose whichever one they want, and then that's how they're marking the progress. So then they know, okay, I have 4 hours, four goodie bags. When I get the last one, maybe that's something that they're going to use at the destination or whatever it is. So if you're making a trip to the beach, maybe the last one is a pair of flippers, whatever it needs to be. So that's another option. The other thing I'm going to say is create as much opportunity for your kids to serve themselves with whatever they need as possible. So you're going to want a self service station that's in their backpack so they can choose the activity they're going to do. They can choose the snack they're going to have. You want to be as hands off as possible to let them entertain as much as you can because you're going to need your patients when they decide that they can't handle it anymore. I also will say plan for naps. I know we said kids don't sleep when they're traveling sometimes.

00:27:39 - Jenny GK
Oh, the car is better than different, right?

00:27:42 - Caitlin Kindred
The car is just different. So I would say plan for naps. Even if your kids don't nap anymore. So bring a pillow and have it available in the car. Bring a blanket, have it available in the car. Bring the favorite levy if there is one. Have it available in the car. They might just surprise you and take a nap.

00:27:57 - Jenny GK
Who knows, they might also sleep out of boredom. That's what I do. If you are trying to get your kiddos, especially those who might be past the nap stage, they might be 45678, 910, 15. If you turn off all the devices or you put the radio on mom and dad's music and you say, you know what, it's just quiet time. We're not going to engage right now. It is possible that the kids might just fall asleep because they're so stinking bored.

00:28:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. So just FYI, right, just do it in case and you'll feel better about it. I would say also probably the most important one is plan. Like a just in case sort of stuff. Make a kit for yourself. Put it in a plastic bin that is clear so that you can see exactly what's in it and you can access it quickly. So this we're talking about spare clothes, plastic bags, a towel or two, some head to toe cleansing wipes, plastic gloves for anyone who needs them and maybe some dramamine for people who get car sick. So spare clothes. I think my mom could probably tell you a story about when she took me up. To Yosemite one time when I was little. You need spare clothes in the car. You don't know who's going to get car sick.

00:29:26 - Jenny GK
We did one trip where Kit threw up three times. We were out of extra clothes.

00:29:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:29:33 - Jenny GK
We had him stripped down to just underwear.

00:29:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:29:37 - Jenny GK
And on the way home, John said, you want to stop for a beer? And I was like, yeah, we both so we brought our naked toddler to this brewery and just let him run around in his underwear and said, we don't even care how trashy this is. We have cleaned up vomit three times on this trip.

00:29:54 - Caitlin Kindred
You needed that beer, you really did. But a car sickness kit is going to be really helpful. I will also say a plastic cereal bin that's lined with a plastic bag is a good trash can. And it could be a good Vom catcher too, if you need it. That's brilliant. Yeah. And it doesn't need to be an expensive one. Just go to the dollar store, get something that has a lid and you can just put a plastic bag in there. Yeah. Put baking soda and cornstarch in this car sickness kit that you have because it can help dry up and neutralize the smell. Once you scrape it all out of your car, you need to have something that's cornstarch or baking soda is probably the best ones. There's also ones that have like they are advertised as being something fancy for that sort of purpose. You don't need it. Just get some baking soda and put it in there. That way once you sprinkle it on, you leave it on there for a little while and then maybe the next gas station after the one that you stop at to clean up. But the next one you can just vacuum it out and it should help a lot with the smell. I would also in that, put maybe some if you're an essential oil user, put some essential oils in there. Like a strong one, like peppermint, maybe. Peppermint can also help with nausea sometimes. Yeah. And maybe some vapor rub. Because if the car stinks, you can put that on your lip and it will block the smell.

00:31:21 - Jenny GK
Just saying what the medical examiner does before they do an autopsy.

00:31:25 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, you just put something strong on your lip so that you don't have to smell it because it's going to be in the car. But if you have it there for everyone, that's good. Or you could do the essential oil thing, whichever one you want. I would say you need to put some car supplies in your emergency kit. Things like jumper cables, fix a flat, trash bags. Also, if you haven't already thought about it, go get your car looked at a few days before you go. Have them check tires, have them check heating and cooling oil, change all those things that you need in order to be prepared so your car is in the best shape possible. And I would also suggest pack a one night bag so this is like a set of PJs and one complete outfit and put it in like a gallon baggie, kind of like what I said to do with your checked bag. And that way, if you have to stop overnight at a hotel or whatever while you're making your road trip, you can just take in this one bag with your toiletries. And you don't have to unpack every single thing that's in the car if you don't want to do that. Some people want to because they don't really want to leave all those things in their car overnight at a hotel. And I would understand that. But if you feel okay about doing that, you know where you're going or you know you're going to have covered parking or whatever, sometimes a one night bag where you just bring that in and not everything else can be really helpful.

00:32:52 - Jenny GK
That is helpful.

00:32:53 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:32:54 - Jenny GK
One more thing I would say, and this is because I'm Gen X a paper map. If you're going somewhere where you know you're going, no worries. But I took Abigail camping in the Davis Mountains a few summers ago and getting to our campsite. We went through several parts of the state where there was no service at all.

00:33:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Very true.

00:33:18 - Jenny GK
And while I knew in my mind where we were going, because I had read the directions and I had seen them on my phone, it was very calming to my anxiety that I had a paper map. So that if something did happen or if I thought I had made a wrong turn, I knew that there was a backup for all those times when I had zero service and my phone could not find me.

00:33:44 - Caitlin Kindred
If you are someone who cannot handle a paper map for whatever reason, maybe you can't read it and you're spatially challenged or whatever it might be. If you are on your phone and you load the area that you're going to be in where you know there's no service, if you load that part of the map onto your phone, you can use it in offline mode. There is a way to do that. Yeah. Let's say you load it when you're on WiFi and then you disconnect it because you're roaming or whatever it might be. You can actually turn that map feature on so that you can still use the GPS and it will still follow you. But the issue is the no service issue, because you can't load the map when there's no service. So if you load it ahead of time, you can use it. And I've learned that in international travel. So that is a thing you can do. But those are my tips for being in the car. There are tons of websites that Jenny and I are providing to help you actually manifest all of these things, manifest the good vibes for your trip and do your homework ahead of time and all those things. So we're providing those to you. Check out the blog post for this episode to see all the details there.

00:35:00 - Jenny GK
Yeah. And remember, it's a trip. It's not a vacation.

00:35:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? It's not going to be relaxing. It's a trip. You're making memories.

00:35:11 - Jenny GK
You might be on vacation once you get there, but you got to take a trip to get there, right?

00:35:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Traveling with kids, you can do it. Just humility. Humility is your friend.

00:35:25 - Jenny GK
Well, speaking of friends, tell your friends. Tell our friends. Rate us, review us, like us, subscribe us, find us on all the places. Do all the things.

00:35:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Do all the things.

00:35:40 - Jenny GK
Do my God, and make good choices.

00:35:46 - Caitlin Kindred
And snacks. Snacks for your friends. Get the snacks.

00:35:51 - Jenny GK
Okay, bye.