Its that time of year, we pack up and sometimes trek cross country by car or airplane to see family and friends. Sometimes its not so long, it might be just a few hours from Phoenix to Flagstaff …..but as the saying goes anything that can go wrong will when you are traveling with the Little Ones. Here are our favorite tips to not completely loose your marbles and make memories not ulcers.

The Puker

Most families have one, the one that pukes ….. Less than 30 minutes after you have been on the road and your little one has done it……they have puked their little guts out. Car Sickness has struck, what will you do?

Be Prepared to Contain. Don’t think that your child is going to give you much warning. I tried plastic bags, towels, my purse, my hands but my best weapon was a plastic bag lined sand bucket next to the puker. It was pretty easy to catch most of the stuff coming out and the mess was minimal. It took me a while to figure this one out but at the end the upholstery of my car thanked me.

Carry Snacks. After an incident you will want to wait to settle their tummies but nothing irked me more then stopping at the Circle K or QT and paying $5 for a box of old saltine crackers. So I made sure to pack them on every trip along with some ginger ale or whatever is the drink of choice in your family after an episode.

Carry a Handy Change of Clothes. Yeah don’t unpack the back of the car.  You will want to have a change of everything ..even shoes, handy for the one with the ailment. And don’t forget yourself! I now make sure to have at least a clean shirt to slip on in case I get hit.

Be Ready to Clean. There might be spillage of the vomit so make sure to stow a canister of cleaning wipes, a trash bag and or Febreze to help you clean at the nearest service station or rest stop. I can not tell you how many times I’ve stopped at a rest area to find no paper towels and then having to drive the whole way with the STENCH.

The Bored Child

Whether in the friendly skies or in the car you need to get them entertained so you don’t have to stop at each rest area to pee or climb over the person next to you in the airplane to get to the lavatory.

Download: Invest in a few movies and download to your pc or their tablet. That will give you at least a good hour to hour and half.

Ear phones: Make sure to also carry spares in your purse, even cheap ear buds in case your first choice breaks.

Travel Size Games: Travel size games are a huge hit and not too expensive, hit up the local Dollar Store to get small jig saw puzzles, word searches or suko books.

Kindle books: If you have a reader make sure to download a few new and sometimes free books for them to read on their way.

Travel Journal: Buy a nice journal or an inexpensive composition book so they can write (if of age) or draw what they see or experience. We pack a glue stick so they can cut out pictures from travel guides to paste on the page or glue post cards to the page. Its lots of fun and a great way to remember the trip.

Travel Desk:  Pick up a travel desk tray much similar to this Star Kids Snack and Play Travel Tray, Navy Blue on Amazon – not only will they be entertained, they will have a flat surface to keep them busy.

The Hungry Child

How many times do we buy a bottle of water and a candy bar and spend $5? OUCH!

Water Bottle: Buy them a new one for the trip or pack their favorite one to refill when needed.

Juices: I freeze Capri Sun pouches and then use them as ice packs to keep our snack cold in the cooler

Candy: So many deals we had and have now for seasonal candy are so much better then $3 for a candy bar at the gas station or airport store. I like to pack fruit snacks. When we went to Universal I had Minion Fruit Snacks packed for the kids and they loved them. When we went to Disney we had the same thing and they were so cheap for a pack of 10.

Snacks: I pack cold cuts, crackers, string cheese and fruit pouches. Keeps the hunger pains away and lets us get to where we are going.

The Spending Child

One of the ways we curbed spending at Disneyland was buy buying t-shirts for them to wear BEFORE we got there. For that we hit the Disney Store Outlet and Walmart before we left. We were decked out in our wear at a fraction of the cost. This helped curb some of the gimmies at the shops.

Once you hit your destination it can be really hard to not come home with lots of useless souvenirs so as a rule at least in our family we grant $20 for them to bring one thing. A lot of times this helps them not bring home the useless junk and a lot of the times they opt to buy a few post cards for their journal or a pen and call it a day and keep their money for their piggy banks.

I’ve shared now what are you tips?