On Keeping Your Sanity When Travelling for Days with Kids

Having arrived in Edmonton successfully, I thought I would share some of the tricks I employed on my journey (and will continue to use) that I think contributed to a stellar journey. I had considered posting some of these earlier, but it was a bit pre-emptive to write that I had maintained my sanity prior to arriving. Of course, had they only worked to Winnipeg, I suppose that would still represent a modicum of success that would be blog-worthy. In previous posts where I talked about prepping the truck, I was often organizing or cleaning up some of the items.

Pack great kids
Admittedly, this is a bit of a hard one to do. If you have kids, you're stuck with them. Packing up somebody else's kids likely won't go over well. Even if exhausted parents would happily relinquish their parental rights to you for several days, there is no guarantee that what were once good kids would remain good kids when in your charge. So, unless you already have great kids, you're kind of screwed.

So this trick is kind of tongue-in-cheek, but I'd obviously be a knave to downplay how much easier my trip was, tricks or not, with great kids. I feel for those parents who have kids that don't travel well for reasons far beyond their parenting skills. For example, my friend Dev's kid likes to throw up in the car. That tendency would make for some interesting moments on a 3700 km journey alone. If you saw the floor of the truck during the drives, you'd know that throwing up would also mean throwing out many of the tricks I'll mention below.

Gum and Rockets

Almost every day, but especially if we are in a vehicle, where a pack of gum can usually be found, our kids ask for gum - or g-u-m when they thought Evelyn didn't know what that meant (she quickly figured it out). So, for this trip, I packed gum. We did this last summer, when Jordan and Marley accompanied me to drop of Tim in Cochrane so he could catch the train to Moosonee. Leia let the girls pick their own gum, and I'd use it as an incentive: "If you read quietly for 30 minutes, you can have some gum!" I let each girl pick out their own gum. Evelyn got strawberry, Marley Orange, and Jordan rainbow. I packed more candy than rockets, having visited the tuck shop at Braeside with the kids prior to departing, so Rockets were not the only treat (refer to earlier post about candy bracelets). Rockets are one of my favourite candies to travel with, however, as they aren't sticky and there are fifteen per package, meaning five candies per kid. FIVE! I think Jordan and Marley are wise to the scam, but they still play along.

I know what some of you are thinking, especially if you're familiar with the literature on rewarding behaviours with food - rewarding kids with sugary snacks is not a good idea. You're right - it's a great idea! Seriously, a wonderful idea. Several times I was able, without much effort, to convince the kids to sit quietly, to play nicely, etc., simply by enticing them with the reward of a piece of gum of their choosing in the near future. Other than Evelyn swallowing her gum once, it was a plan that worked wonderfully. The only danger is buying candy that is too tempting to avoid. I've made this mistake in the past, purchasing candy like salt-water taffy (Isaac and I recently purposefully made this mistake on our fishing trip to Temagami). I did bring along a giant bag of Cadbury mini-eggs, but only packed a small baggie for the truck. I ate that small baggie pretty quick, and thus far have had the restraint to leave the remainder in the trailer.

Walkie-Talkies
Taking walkie-talkies on long road trips has always made sense when travelling in more than one vehicle. Isaac and I used these ones to talk when he drove our car back when we moved back to Ontario in April of 2009. I hadn't planned to take them on this trip until the very end, and I'm glad I did.

The walkie-talkies had two main jobs for me on this trip. (1) I would leave one in the car with the kids when I would run into a store, typically Tim's to get a coffee and post my blog. It allowed me to stay in contact with the kids, and for me to feel like I was a good parent. (2) I used them at the campsites to take one kid to the washroom, or use the facilities myself, etc. I also found out that they had another  job: (3) Jordan would use them to walk to the washroom herself. It was always close, and I would constantly chat with her, but I think she really enjoyed the independence.

Colouring and Activities
Prior to departing, I spent several hours printing off colouring sheets and activities. These proved invaluable. As you can see, I printed related material, such as provincial flags, pictures of monuments we'd see, animals that lived in the area. I purchased an accordion folder to keep it all organized. 

I brought a pencil case of pencil crayons (crayons for Evelyn) and pencils for each kid. This avoided any argument over who gets what colour. Each kid also had two clipboards. I have lots of little pads of paper for the little clipboard, and made the travel bingo sheets to fit. The clipboards proved to be useful for more than colouring - I used the backs of them to slice apples while driving! I also brought little notepads for journalling. One of the thoughtful gifts that Zoya got the girls is a notebook for drawing or writing notes.

Books

Bringing along books is obvious. I brought a tote of books (and Brain Quest) that we are slowly cycling through. I can see how car trips will get easier as the kids get older and immersed in a chapter book. I went to Value Village before departing to find new comic books that the girls had never seen, and so the books were new and exciting! By not letting the kids have access to all the books at once meant they didn't burn through them in the first day.

Toys

The girls were allowed to bring some stuffies and toys for the trip. To make it manageable, I let them each pack a tote - picture below. These totes were purchased with this in mind, but they were more fun, as they came with Playmobil. The girls got two more totes for Christmas one year from Amos and Faith. After the girls packed their totes, with my approval of what was inside (despite this, I still allowed Jordan to pack the loon whistle - while noisy, it made sense that calling loons while camping in Northern Ontario was a perfectly reasonable activity), we packed two communal totes. Each night I would clean up the totes (I only relinquished the second of the two communal totes on the long drive between Winnipeg and Saskatoon - again, keeping things fresh and exciting). When I started to clean up the truck last night in Ximena and Nelson's driveway, I simply shoved the toys in a shopping bag. I'll repack the totes another day!

Clothing bundles

I was a bit nervous about the time it would take to get the girls dressed. I'm still not always clear on who wears what, and often have to look at the tags to figure out sizes. Lame, I know. My Mom suggested that we roll the clothes into outfits, so you grab a roll and have everything you need. Leia took this one step further, and bundled the clothes with elastics. She used blue elastics for outfits for cooler weather, and red elastics for warm weather. Outfits that went together, like bathing suits, were in big ziplocks. This made it super easy. I'd grab a bundle in the morning, depending on weather. We'll use this system for the rest of the trip, and for future travels. I'll likely buy elastics strictly for this purpose. 

Have good friends

I think this pictures sums up good friends. Having the gift beers each night did help keep me sane. It was a reminder to take some time, to put my feet up, and enjoy my trip. Otherwise, I might have been tempted to keep cleaning or prepping until I was exhausted. I am fortunate to have good friends - some of whom I stayed with, others who sent gifts for me or the kids, and others I'm going to see in the days to come, now that we've arrived in the West. I also thought about friends often on the trip, as I've driven across this country with many friends over the years. Maybe I"ll post more on that later.

Now, I need to get these atrophied legs out for a run.