Are We There Yet?
Traveling with kids can be a pleasant experience, or it can be a nightmare.
Guess who is responsible for either of those two scenarios?
That’s right: you are.
If traveling with your kids makes every mile of misery something you dread, then you are to blame, not them.
We all hear horror stories of road trips spent in the close confines of a vehicle with one or more whiny, bickering, demanding children making everyone’s lives a bad dream.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
If it is that way for you, then put the blame where it belongs….squarely on yourself.
Kids have to be trained and taught how to behave while traveling.
While it’s fine, and even desirable, to take games along to entertain them on long trips, there is no reason to encourage the popular fallacy that if children are not entertained constantly, they earn the right to misbehave.
The bald truth is that there is never an excusable reason for a child to misbehave to the point that traveling with the little darling becomes an endurance test instead of a vacation or pleasure outing.
No doubt your child will have tons of fun once you reach the designated vacation or camping site. But there is no getting around the fact that in order to get there---you will have to travel.
Take your children some games along that can be played in the car or RV. Some parents now invest in auto DVDs and that’s okay, too.
But you should somehow impart to your children that it isn’t necessary that they be entertained every single minute of every single day; and also that if they are not entertained sufficiently, it doesn’t give them license to behave badly.
Teach your children to respect others, and make them understand that there are times in life that may be downright boring, and that sometimes we all just have to suck it up and live with it.
This may sound harsh, but it really isn't. Parents have a responsibility to teach their kids the right way to behave in various situations, including travel.
It isn't even safe for parents to drive a car when it's a madhouse of spoiled kids acting out---screaming, fighting, yelling. This is the kind of thing that causes accidents!
Travel with kids will be infinitely more enjoyable for you and them if you teach them proper traveling behavior.
