Travel is a ton of fun, and there are few things that can be more exciting than taking your family on a special adventure and showing them a new part of the world. It’s also great to discover these new things for yourself, alongside the people that you love the most. All this is really nice and great, but any parent will agree when the point is made that vacations don’t always turn out quite so nicely. When there’s a big family involved, vacations have a lot of moving parts, and being in charge of it all can be incredibly stressful and overwhelming. Parents can be stretched pretty thin, and it’s not entirely uncommon for that tired old saying to come to mind, and find you feeling like maybe you could use a vacation from your vacation. It’s not always easy on the kids, either. If you’ve ever traveled, you know that even doing it without a whole family in tow can be a pretty taxing experience. When we’re traveling as grown-ups, we typically handle this exhaustion with a few cocktails and/or some much-needed rest. Kids, however, deal with this stress a little less gracefully, and traveling can make them just as prone to melting down as the tired parents who made the entire trip possible. It’s clear that both sides need to be carefully taken care of, so we’ll talk about how you can take care of yourself and your kids in ways that’ll make it easier for you to avoid a traveling meltdown.
Food can seriously be your savior when it comes to managing travel stress. Many of us get so busy that we forget to eat. Blood sugar can get dangerously low when you’re a family on the go, and this can lead to stressed-out parents and incredibly cranky kids. Keep plenty of snacks on hand, for both you and the children, so that nobody gets too hungry and starts feeling that crankily low blood sugar coming on.Making sure you have a very specific itinerary is another way to reduce stress for both you and the children. Parents don’t have to deal with the stress of not knowing exactly what’s coming up next in terms of scheduling, and can relax knowing that everything’s planned and can just be taken care of as such. It’ll also give you the chance to make sure you carve out that valuable nap time, or give your kids a chance to do whatever it is that’ll help them decompress a bit so that nobody gets too edgy.It’s also a good idea to do some research ahead of time so you can find activities for everyone and not have anyone feeling neglected or left out. If your kids want to visit an amusement park or go look at old Rome apartments, give them the chance to do it so everyone feels adequately taken care of. It’s not too tough to keep everyone happy when you have these right strategies in mind.
