When I suggested to my husband that we take a road trip with our five daughters—ages 13, 10, 8, 3, and 9 months—he laughed. Then he realized I was serious. “It’ll be fun,” I said. “Your definition of fun and my definition of fun are drastically different,” he said. And so, we started planning.
Let me just say that our original plan was much bigger than what we actually ended up doing. I started out very optimistic and booked an Air BNB on a beach that Google told me was 9 hours and 21 minutes away, which means no less than 14 hours when traveling with an infant in tow. The closer that we got to our travel dates, the more we realized how insane our (okay, my) idea was. The baby hates car rides like I hate the random little neck hairs that started appearing once I hit 40. We can’t make it the ten-minute drive to Chick-Fil-A without her screaming the entire way and all of us wanting to jump out of the moving vehicle. My older kids kept asking if we were REALLY going to try driving that far with her… So we decided to start with something a little more manageable and settled for a fun family favorite spot three hours away instead.
Since Google is my bestie, I decided to ask her how to survive a family road trip with five kids without losing your mind. Spoiler alert: I didn’t find a definitive answer, but I did discover that with the right preparation, a sense of humor, and possibly some light sedation (for me, not the kids… mostly), it’s actually possible to create beautiful family memories while only questioning your life choices about 47 times per day.
The Pre-Trip Planning Phase (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lists)
The key to any successful road trip with kids is preparation. And by preparation, I mean creating so many lists that your husband starts hiding the sticky notes. I had lists for snacks, lists for activities, lists for emergency supplies, and yes, even a list of my lists.
My 13-year-old rolled her eyes when I showed her my color-coded itinerary. “Mom, it’s only three hours away, not a cross-country expedition.” But little did she know that wrangling five kids in a minivan for three hours can feel like eight hours, and requires approximately the same level of strategic planning as a military operation.
The packing process alone took two days. Between the baby gear, the toddler essentials, and enough snacks to feed a small army, our minivan looked like we were preparing for the apocalypse. My husband asked if we were moving permanently. I told him we might be if this trip didn’t go well.
These packing cubes make staying organized while packing a cinch!! https://amzn.to/4kOnggX
The Great Snack Strategy
Let’s talk about snacks, because if you don’t have a solid snack game, you’re basically setting yourself up for failure. I learned this the hard way during our first family road trip when my 8-year-old had a complete meltdown because her crackers were “too salty” and my 3-year-old declared she was “starving to death” exactly 23 minutes after we’d stopped for lunch.
This time, I came prepared with individual snack bags for each kid, labeled with their names and strategically distributed throughout the van. I included everything from goldfish crackers to fruit pouches, granola bars to those little cheese sticks that somehow cost more per ounce than caviar. Because apparently, even on a three-hour drive, my children transform into hobbits who require second breakfast, elevenses, and pre-lunch snacks.
My secret weapon? A cooler filled with frozen juice boxes. They act as ice packs and by the time they thaw, you have perfectly chilled drinks. Plus, there’s something magical about a frozen juice box that makes kids forget they were fighting about who gets to control the music.
This car seat organizer is great for keeping snacks, books, games, toys — pretty much anything– organized on road trips! https://amzn.to/44CyaBu
We recently got one of these and it was perfect for traveling! It’s very spacious and took up much less room than our old travel cooler. https://amzn.to/4mjt6rV
Entertainment Artillery: Keeping Five Kids Happy in Confined Spaces
When you’re traveling with kids ranging from 9 months to 13 years old, the entertainment needs vary dramatically. My teenager wanted play games on her phone and text her friends. My 10-year-old brought seventeen books and read them all in the first two hours. The 8-year-old wanted to play “20 Questions” approximately 400 times, and my 3-year-old’s attention span maxed out at about 3.7 minutes per activity.
The baby? She just wanted to be held, which is surprisingly difficult when you’re strapped into a driver’s seat going 65 mph down the interstate.
I packed a arsenal of entertainment options: coloring books, magnetic drawing boards, travel-sized games, kids tablets full of games, and enough stickers to wallpaper a small house. The key is rotation—introduce new activities every 20-30 minutes or so to prevent the dreaded “Are we there yet?” chorus that somehow starts exactly three minutes into a three-hour journey. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that my three year old asked if we were almost there before we even got out of our neighborhood.
Our favorite kids tablets!! This one is great for the older kids: https://amzn.to/4eUqPR9 And this one is great for the younger kids: https://amzn.to/3GuiZ4f
The Bathroom Break Ballet
Nothing tests your organizational skills quite like coordinating bathroom breaks for seven people. It’s like conducting a symphony, except the instruments are all out of tune and one of them is crying.
My system: announce bathroom breaks 15 minutes before stopping, again at 10 minutes, and then start the countdown at 5 minutes. This gives everyone time to mentally prepare and reduces the chances of someone suddenly needing to go the moment we pull away from the rest stop.
Pro tip: Always carry a travel potty for the 3-year-old. Trust me on this one. As soon as you don’t have one, your toddler will need to go potty when you’re in bumper-to-bumper traffic or out in the middle of nowhere. I mean you could always improvise– you could always get creative with the fast-food cup holders– but isn’t the travel potty an easier option? I think so.
Travel potty seat: https://amzn.to/4lBoGfZ
The Sibling Warfare Cease-Fire Agreement
Five kids in one vehicle for extended periods is basically a recipe for World War III. The 13-year-old thinks she’s in charge, the 10-year-old is convinced everyone is out to get her, the 8-year-old won’t stop singing the same song on repeat, and the 3-year-old keeps kicking the back of my seat.
Know what works well? A point system. Good behavior earns points, fighting loses points, and at the end of the trip, points can be redeemed for special treats. It’s amazing how quickly kids can resolve their differences when ice cream is on the line.
Another idea is “quiet time” every one or two hours—30 minutes where everyone has to whisper or stay completely silent. Littles will often sleep during these times, which, let’s be honest, is a gift to everyone in the vehicle.
This is the perfect quiet time activity that always keeps my kids entertained for awhile– sometimes even longer than the required 30 minutes! https://amzn.to/40lJnE1
The Great Meltdown of Mile Marker 247
Here’s the thing. No matter how much preparation goes into a trip, there will always be something that doesn’t go as planned. For us, it happened somewhere around hour two of our three-hour journey, when the 3-year-old had a complete nuclear meltdown because her favorite stuffed animal fell between the seat and the door. The baby woke up from her nap to the sounds of the screaming, and she started crying in solidarity. The 8-year-old screamed about the noise, the 10 year old announced she “was done,” and the 13-year-old announced that she knew this would happen.
My husband pulled over at the next exit, and I seriously considered whether anyone would notice if I just started walking and didn’t stop until I reached Canada. Instead, I took a deep breath, distributed hugs and snacks, and reminded myself that this too shall pass.
Twenty minutes later, everyone was happy again, and we were back on the road. That’s the thing about traveling with kids—the meltdowns are intense but usually short-lived. The key is not to take it personally and remember that everyone is just tired and overwhelmed.
The Magical Moments That Make It All Worth It
Here’s the thing about family road trips: they’re 90% chaos and 10% pure magic. But that 10% is so worth it. Like when my 8-year-old gasped in genuine wonder at her first glimpse city skyline. Or when my 3-year-old fell asleep holding hands with her big sister. Or when my teenager actually laughed at one of my jokes.
These moments don’t happen in spite of the chaos—they happen because of it. Being stuck in a car together for hours forces you to actually talk to each other, to play silly games, to create inside jokes that you’ll reference for years to come.
My 10-year-old still talks about the time we got lost and ended up discovering that amazing ice cream shop. My 13-year-old actually put down her phone to help navigate when Google maps decided to take a vacation. These are the stories that become family legends.
This travel journal is a great way to keep track of all your adventures so that you can revisit them forever: https://amzn.to/44T2jeT
The Wisdom of Hindsight
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Will I pack differently next time? Definitely. Will I lower my expectations even further? You bet.
The secret to surviving a family road trip isn’t having everything go perfectly—it’s accepting that nothing will go perfectly and finding joy in the beautiful disaster. Yes, someone will spill something on the new car seats. Yes, you’ll make seventeen unscheduled stops. Yes, you’ll question your sanity multiple times.
But you’ll also create memories that will last a lifetime. You’ll see your kids experience new things, you’ll laugh until your sides hurt, and you’ll remember why you decided to have this crazy, wonderful family in the first place.
So pack the snacks, charge the devices, take a deep breath, and embrace the chaos. After all, it’s not about the destination—it’s about the incredibly messy, beautifully imperfect journey of getting there together.
And if all else fails, there’s always wine.
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You are the next Erma Bombeck!!!!!
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