Skip to main content

Family Travel Tips

School break is right around the corner and I bet all of you parents and kiddies are planning a family trip. Whether adventuring somewhere warm or simply taking a long weekend in the hills, it's important to be prepared and have the right attitude. I recently sat down with one of most well known family travelers, who puts the "What the FU..." in family fun. Feel free to take notes on the Travel Top 10 from Handy Andy.

10: Don't set an Estimated Time of Departure. Keep your options open. Not setting a specific time to leave makes your kids more excitable and agitated, which is exactly the temperament you'd like your children to have before locking them in a moving box for hours on end.

9: Make sure to pack snacks for the ride. Like chocolate frosted donuts.

8: Nothing makes a long car ride better than asking the family to play the "quiet game" while you participate in a conference call.

7: It's not about the destination. It's about the journey. Especially when the journey includes getting lost twice within 25 miles of your house because you would rather trust Google maps than road signs or just a basic, good old understanding of geography.

6: Make sure to plan several activities that pique the interest of each family member, like shopping for men's dress shoes and dress shirts or going to a brewery and watching hockey.

5: Sacrifice your data plan for cartoon watching in restaurants. Yes, it hurts the pocket book, but it means you can eat your dinner.

4: Whatever you do, don't pack the kids' stuff. That way, when something is missing you can feel totally good about shrugging your shoulders and mumbling, "I dunno" when a kid asks where her goggles, underwear, blankie, teddy bear, or mittens are.

3: Buy the kids whatever they want. Again, it hurts the pocket book but do what you can to get in one more beer.

2: Road trips are a great time to catch up with your spouse- talk about all those things you've not had the chance to process. Remember to keep your wife close and your phone closer.

1: When you get home, and everyone is cranky, and there's tons of clothes to wash, trinkets to put away, and mouths to feed-disappear. Follow that misguided, misdirected Google maps app and get lost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TomKat or AndMel?

Over the weekend I had "my hour". Sixty whole minutes at the gym including 30 on the new treadmill and the latest In Style magazine to read while I sweat it out to my itunes. I happily flipped and thumped along, checking out the latest hand bags and arm cuffs until I got to an article about Katie Holmes. I had to flip back and forth several times to admire one of my favorite Hollywood pieces of eye candy. How can she and I have children almost the same age and she can look like that and have run a marathon this year? No matter what we all tell ourselves about celebs, we still envy them or just can't help but stare at their image in a magazine and read all about how they've found themselves via religion, rehab or marriage to Tom Cruise. My favorite part of the article was Katie recalling Suri's birth story. She says something about how supportive Tom was by placing candles and picture frames around the room. That's helpful? If Andy was lighting candles during ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spoiler Alert!

It's no big shock that I opened my mouth and got myself in trouble earlier this week. This time it was my virtual mouth, and we all know that can be the worst. Saying something stupid, online, is like spreading a highly contagious virus. Speaking of which, with all of my recent coughing and sneezing, I've been really good at spreading a germy virus around. I teach students to be social media savvy, and gosh darn it, I did so as recent as yesterday. I provide them with some rules to protect them from looking like a virtual ass, but low and behold, I fall victim to assiness every once in a while. How am I supposed to know every single rule in life, and particularly online? I'm just a simple human being, with a big mouth, who wants to over share! So, here's what went down, if you didn't get pissy pants over my FB faux pas. I watched the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead on Sunday night. Andy was in the can and I just needed to talk about the episode. I needed t...
2 comments
Read more

LAX

Some people may think that Andy and I are "lax" parents. Our house isn't a free range farm by any means, although just throwing food on the ground, and letting the kids wander around and pick it up when they are hungry, sounds pretty enticing. It's true that we aren't the strictest parents and that, regularly, there is mutiny on the bounty and we are held hostage by little pirate people. The drill sergeant in our house is 3 feet tall and belts outs commands like, "Get me a drink!", "Turn on Netflix!", or "You will not wash my hair!" while wearing only a pullup, squinting her eyes, and pointing an accusatory finger in our direction. Our kids are often in charge. I'm not going to lie to you. The dog may also be in charge from time to time. That's just the way it goes. As more and more of our peers have a third child, we are, unfortunately, asked if we, too, plan to expand. Are these people insane in the membrane? Have they been...
2 comments
Read more