How to Survive a Solo Road Trip with Small Children

Road trips can be trying for anyone’s patience and sanity. Now try doing it on your own… with two kids. Well I have. More times than I can count at this point.

My family and I moved from Southern New Jersey to Vermont one year ago. That’s approximately 300+ miles and 6 hours with no traffick. Since my husband works full time, I often decide to head back “home” with the kids for week long trips that he can’t make. That means I’m left manning the road trip sans a copilot.

I’ve done this drive so many times now, I’ve lost count. And, I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve kind of gotten this solo road trip thing down to a science.

Here are my tips for surviving a solo road trip with small children:

EVERYONE goes to the bathroom before we leave.

If there is ever a situation where NOT being potty trained is ideal, it is the road trip. Now that both of my kids are potty trained, I have to stop every time someone has to pee (or even says they have to).

Going potty before we leave the house will typically give me a couple of hours where I can call their bluff if I’m pretty sure they just want to get a McDonald’s Happy Meal at the rest stop.

Sure, this is like playing Russian Roulette with my car seat… but knowing they both went potty right before we walked out the door gives me a little peace of mind the third time I say, “Just a few more minutes”.

AVOID rest stops like the plague.

They are my worst nightmare. Like I actually have nightmares about them. I prefer rest areas and text stops to a rest stop ANY DAY.

Rest stops are as crowded and terrifying as a carnival and the parking lot is worse. Typically, I just want to get in and out of the bathroom and back in the car. But, rest stops have McDonalds, and vending machines, and video games, and claw machines, and super long bathroom lines, and a million places for a small child to get distracted and wonder off. Like I said, my worst nightmare.

Instead, I stop at rest areas or text stops. Rest areas are typically a small, single lane parking lot, one building (with just bathrooms, road maps, and vending machines), and WAY smaller crowds and lines. These are the sweet spot. Way less overwhelming.

If I can’t find a rest area, my second choice is a text stop. These are just pull off loops. No buildings, no bathrooms. But, my boys are not above peeing outside and you better believe I’ll squat, too, if it means avoiding a rest stop.

Pack lots of food.

Basically, my main goal on a solo road trip is avoiding rest stops (see above). So, packing lots of food is a necessity. I make sure I’ve got a wide variety of favorite: Strawberries, carrot sticks, pre-peeled cuties, Goldfish, cookies, PB&J sandwiches.

Everything is individually bagged and I make two of everything. Because, all of us moms know, my son who typically hates carrots will absolutely NEED his own bag of carrots if his brother has one.

I keep all of the food in an open bag on the passenger seat. That way I can grab different things and pass them back as needed. I do not tell them what I’ve packed ahead of time and I do not give them choices. Each time I send them back food, it is a surprise. This keeps them happy.

Since the food will inevitably end up on the floor of the car and there’s nothing I can do about that while I’m driving without a copilot, I make sure that it is all large pieces that I can easily clean up when we get to our destination. I also make sure that it is in containers or bags that they can open and close themselves.

I also pack them each a drink but you better believe I am not messing with juice boxes while I’m driving. They each get one bottled water with the flip-top. This way, they’re not messing with a lid, if it does spill it was just water, and it’s something they don’t regularly get so it seems like a big treat to them.

Hide special activities in the front seat.

I mentioned my big bag of tricks above. It rides shotgun and saves me multiple times throughout my long solo road trips with kids. In addition to loading it with food and snacks, I also load it with toys, books, and games. And, just as with the snacks, I do not tell my boys what I’ve packed.

I typically wait until one has dozed to dive into the toy section of my bag. Up until that point, they will usually entertain each other by chatting, passing toys back and forth, and trying to touch each other with their feet. If one is sleeping, they also can’t fight over what I’ve given the other. Books are great for this time because there is something new to look at on each page.

As they are children, they will definitely drop or toss the things you hand them. Make sure you have lots of back ups! You’re never going to be able to grab the book dropped behind your seat without getting in an accident and you definitely don’t want to start the habit of stopping for things like that. Make sure you have something even more exciting you can hand back next!

Listen to kids books on CD.

Speaking of books, you should totally listen to kids books on CD. The narrators always have a super soothing voice. This soothing voice has a threefold positive effect on our solo road trips. 1. It calms my kids down if they are arguing. 2. It calms me down if I want to scream about traffic. 3. It lulls my kids to sleep.

Be careful, though, that it doesn’t lull you to sleep! Once the kids are out, turn that shit off.

If at all possible, leave at a time when you know they will fall asleep.

I am very strategic about when we leave. If we are driving from NJ to VT, we will ALWAYS leave at 9am. This way, we avoid the morning commute and are well past NYC long before any rush hour traffic begins.

When we are heading from VT to NJ, we have a few more options. If we leave in the morning, the goal here is to be completely through NYC and North Jersey before work lets out. If we leave any time before 10am, we can do this and I can almost guarantee an afternoon nap from both of my guys just in time for the worst part of the drive: the Garden State Parkway.

When heading from VT to NJ, it is sometimes strategically planned to leave at 5pm. I load the kids up with dinner, hop in the car and within 2 hours, they are out for the night. We hit NYC well after the evening commute and we get to our final destination at about 11pm. Not too bad. Plan your departure time strategically, you won’t regret it.

If you don’t have satellite radio, get on board with NPR.

We don’t have satellite radio. I just CANNOT with another monthly bill. Instead, I tune in to NPR and cruise. Why NPR you ask? Because virtually every major media market has one and they all have basically the same programming.

Instead of having to find something new to listen to every hour or so; once I’m starting to lose signal, I hit search and the new NPR station is typically the first channel to come in. Easy-peasy.

Tune it ALL out.

In the words of Elsa, “Let it gooooooooo”. Tune out the arguing, they will get over it. Tune out the nagging, they will find something new to occupy them. Your car will be a mess of snacks, toys, and books when you get there; but at least you will get there safely. Let it all go, tune it all out, and focus on the road. (Don’t tune out the third request for a bathroom break, that shit’s important).

Do you solo roadtrip often with your kids? What are your best tips and tricks?