MomsTalk: Survival Guide to Spring Break Trips

Are we there yet, Mom? Spring break for Fairfax County Schools is next week. That means thousands of McLean families will be boarding planes, trains and automobiles as they head to locations near and far in search of rest, relaxation and family fun. Anyone who has traveled with children knows that just successfully arriving at your destination can be more than half the battle. The McLean Patch Moms share their travel successes and failures.

Kathleen Weil, McLean resident, married with three daughters and a sheltie.

We have ten-hour road trips a few times a year and have come to feel like experts in this department!  Our children are still young and the most important thing we do is keep a wide variety of options available for them.  We leave really, really early in the morning and this is great on so many levels.  They are extremely tired since we wake them up from a deep sleep, so they usually go back to sleep for a few hours.  This means my husband and I get to relax for the first few hours and chat and catch up for a bit.

When they wake up we let them watch a favorite show with a light breakfast.  We have learned  not to overdue the treats and snacks (oh, the past trips when this has happened have included vomit and emergency bathroom breaks!).  Often, they will fall back asleep for a little more time after this.  We might have a quick stop for a bathroom break a few hours in, and then we play some family car games (finding all the letters of the alphabet on signs, I spy, guess who I’m thinking of......to name a few).

This year I’m packing a “personalized” lunch box for each of my three girls.  Normally I have one big cooler full of food and water, but this next trip they will all have their own little cooler to help themselves from.  We are hoping this will take up less room in the car, with the added benefit of giving them more independence of grabbing what they want to eat whenever they are hungry.  I’m looking forward to not having to climb over armrests and seats in order to get everyone what they want!  For that last leg of the trip which is the hardest because everyone is tired and just wants to get out of the car I might have a brand new movie or book and some chocolate milk for the girls.  This gets us through the last hour or two and we arrive in pretty good shape.