Raising/Training kids for Overland Travel?

[EOE4x4]

Over Easter weekend, we extended our travel range with a trip to visit my family in Eastern NC. Trip is 7-8hrs each way, so building on our 3-4 trip experiences I decided to try leaving a bit later than usual. Friday night we left about 8pm (Tommy's usual bedtime, give or take an hour). Traffic was crappy, so we didn't get to my mom's until 4am. But he slept the whole way. Grandma got up at 7am and fed him and took him out in the stroller while we slept in a bit. The way home we left about 7pm. He fell asleep in his seat (after crying for 20 minutes...teething) about 8 and slept til we got home at 1:30am. Made for a long day at work for me monday, but it kept the boy on a good schedule which kept my wife and I from pulling out our hair.
He loves traveling! My wife noted that many days he'll get a but fussy in the evening, and the only thing he wants is to go outside for a ride in the stroller or child carrier. He's made the weight requirement for the carrier/backpack, so I've been starting with short hikes (1-2 miles), and will begin to start stretching them until we can do some nicer hikes. So far the training is going quite well .
On a side note: some items we've found that help with infant travel, for camping or holidays-
1) Graco travel crib. The cheaper $60 one, not the $100-200 ones. Gives him a little "home base" that he loves no matter where we are. Great for changing and play too. Folds to the size of a normal tent
2) $25 Fisher Price "booster seat." Folds up to a convenient size (made for travel) and is great for home and at Grandma's.
3) Little plastic "chain links." My wife made a toy chain across his crib to play, clips toys to his car seat and stroller, and the handle on the child carrier. Keeps toys within reach, and keeps them from getting left along the trail .
I'm sure there's more...

 

[Ray Hyland]

Sounds like you guys have found a formula that works for you, that's fantastic.

Cheers

 

[Fireman78]

Hey that's awesome, good to get out with the family.. I know people that refuse to travel with there babies until they're "older". Ridiculous!!

 

[EOE4x4]

Sounds like you guys have found a formula that works for you, that's fantastic.

Cheers

Seems like it so far. Everyone I've spoken to (including posts here) says to start early and take your kids with you. Especially for outdoors stuff. This has evolved into a "Overland/outdoors kid build" thread for me

Hey that's awesome, good to get out with the family.. I know people that refuse to travel with there babies until they're "older". Ridiculous!!

But that's how most people see it. Most people think that if they travel or do outdoorsy stuff with babies that they need to wait years. By then, the kid hates it, making it a miserable experience for parent and child. I guess that's why I started this thread. About 1/3 of the people I know said their kids were great travelers; the other 2/3 said it was awful. Seem like most of the "awful" crowd hadn't taken their kids more than 30 miles for years before trying an overnight drive to Florida, etc. The only problem was that the folks who had kids that traveled well (including my parents) couldn't remember or weren't available for examples of how they did it.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. Threads are so boring without pics!

 

[campingmom]

My 8 year old asked just yesterday, "When are we going for a long road trip? I love road trips!" We started when they were newborns.

For toddlers and preschoolers, I used to pack a bag full of little toys and books - new ones, that they hadn't seen before, from the dollar store or the thrift store. I doled out a new toy every now and then and they were happy.

One of my boys hated to drive after dark when he was small. A little flashlight for him to play with really helped.

When they got old enough to read a simple map, I'd print out a map of our route and put stickers on it every few towns. When we got to a place with a sticker, there would be a treat: something to eat, or a new little travel toy, or a new story CD to listen to.

We tried having individual ipods so each boy could listen to what he wanted - but none of us liked that. Part of the joy of a family road trip is that we are all together, sharing the experience. Listening to a story together is much more fun than having each of us plugged in to our own separate device.

And I would echo the recommendation to eliminate TV. Now that my boys are 8 and 10, I see that having no TV has made our lives easier, not harder. My kids can entertain themselves anywhere, anytime, with anything (or nothing) to play with. They would rather be outdoors than in. Their friends who have grown up with TV seem to need to be entertained. And just not having TV at all has always seemed much easier to me than trying to limit it.

Just my .02.

Oh - and for travelling with an infant, breastfeeding makes everything so easy!! No bottles or formula to carry - no need for clean water - the baby's meal is ready anytime and anywhere - and always at the right temperature! And when the unexpected happens, it is so reassuring to know that you have what you need to nourish your baby, no matter what.

 

[EOE4x4]

When they got old enough to read a simple map, I'd print out a map of our route and put stickers on it every few towns. When we got to a place with a sticker, there would be a treat: something to eat, or a new little travel toy, or a new story CD to listen to.


Oh - and for travelling with an infant, breastfeeding makes everything so easy!! No bottles or formula to carry - no need for clean water - the baby's meal is ready anytime and anywhere - and always at the right temperature! And when the unexpected happens, it is so reassuring to know that you have what you need to nourish your baby, no matter what.

I LOVE the map idea! I'm definitely stealing that one. I love maps and spent the first few years of marriage teaching my wife to read them well. She laughs at GPS .

My wife tried breastfeeding, but a few days after we got home from the hospital, she had to go back for almost a week. So that ended rather quickly. Bottle feeding isnt bad, took us about a week to get the hang of for traveling.
Every Starbucks we stopped at was happy to give us a cup of hot water to warm the bottle in. Enfamil sent us sample packs that were perfect for travel- long thin pouch that slips into empty bottles and makes 4oz of formula. An old plastic cup stays in the diaper bag (my old North Face pack) for warming, as well as an empty bottle with formula packs. That's our "emergency stash." So bottle feeding is not bad at all, just takes a little more thought at the beginning to get habits in place.
Great stuff!

 

[Loco-Nomad]

a lot of it is how you start them out. I have 4 kids 14, 7, 5 and 16 months. All are used to pulling a travel trailer and camping in populated campgrounds. When I bring up tent camping/backpacking, my 14year old acts like I am asking for her left arm! It's not impossible just difficult to change over from campground camping to "Overland" travel. I'm no expert and I'm still learning but kids are kids and when you want to include them on your adventures, it does take a bit of work to make it fun. Once they get the hang of it, they will never forget the adventures

 

[Hannibal USA]

We go for 2-7 day trips with our Family 8, and 3 yr old plus 7 weeks till the third one joins us. We just got back from a 6 day trip with the kids and the prego wife, kids love it!

The big thing we do is give them activities like home work on the trip: take notes photos etc... We even get books on the routes we are taking so they can learn and see the history and sights while on the trip. They are always ready to hit the road at a drop of the hat.

 

[Loco-Nomad]

That is a great idea I hadn't thought of. Sounds good for the drive but what about the "roughing" it part, primitive camping? What have you found that works getting them used to that?

We go for 2-7 day trips with our Family 8, and 3 yr old plus 7 weeks till the third one joins us. We just got back from a 6 day trip with the kids and the prego wife, kids love it!

The big thing we do is give them activities like home work on the trip: take notes photos etc... We even get books on the routes we are taking so they can learn and see the history and sights while on the trip. They are always ready to hit the road at a drop of the hat.

 

[EOE4x4]

That is a great idea I hadn't thought of. Sounds good for the drive but what about the "roughing" it part, primitive camping? What have you found that works getting them used to that?

Which part seems to be the most difficult? Sleeping in tents? Facilities? Or lack of computer, xbox, etc? I love tent camping, but only from september/October to may. Lying in a pool of sweat all night is not my idea of fun. We got excited about tent camping when I was little when my dad would let us set a tent up in the living room and spend a night or two before a camping trip. He used it to make sure we didn't lose and poles, stakes, or lines since it was used last.

 

[Loco-Nomad]

Had some bad experience after buying a new tent from the Coleman dealer in Tennessee and then coming home after a day of sight seeing to find a few inches of water in the tent. Obviously a defective tent and they took it back, but a/c also as we like to camp all summer. Just seems they want to have the tv/dvd and all the amenities when we go....

 

[EOE4x4]

Not sure if it helps, but I have a younger brother in law and cousin who are both technology addicts. When I take one of them along rustic camping I bring along a distraction, much like with a child. But they were teenagers when I started with them. Had to think of a way to kick it up a notch to work for them. The answer: firecrackers. Keeps them entertained between dinner and bedtime.

 

[B.L. Sims]

Being a product of overland travel training I can say what probably worked the best to get us in "shape" was just repeated exposure at an early age. We took at least one family vacation per year to the mountains that could mean between 8-20 hours in the car. We didnt fly anywhere hardly so ive riden from Texas to AZ, NM, FL, DC on many occasions. Extended family lived at least 2 hours away. All of this made for plenty of "training" opportunities.

The results were us being very conditioned and CONTENT with riding in the car for long periods of time and VERY happy parents. They used to brag on us all the time to their friends and co-workers who said their kids go berzerk after 30 minutes in the car. I laugh when people (even my wife) think that 2 hours in the car is "far". At 4 hours im just settling into my "groove". We also learned that stopping for gas was the occasion to: get out and streach your legs, refuel, use the restroom, and grab something out of the back. I took a few trips in HS where it seemed we were pulling over all the time for various "pit stops" and it drove me batty. Another thing which bewildered me was at every stop people seemed to flood out and go buy snacks, drinks, candy, etc. We always brought things to snack on, drinks, and lunch fixins in the vehicle. The only meal that you bought was dinner. We never got drinks at the drive through- we had our own already.

For entertainment we had a game boy (of which both my brother and I worked very hard earning money for), some other little electronic games, we drew/colored, read books (though it make me horribly car sick), listened to tapes/audio books, or my brother and I would make up goofy songs and games.

We never had any TV (mainly because in the 90's portable TV wasnt easy) but we really never wanted it anyways. We were conditioned to look out the windows and see the sights if we wanted something to "watch". My child is 5 months old and I will refuse to do the whole "entertainment system" on vacation when shes older. Its bad enough that the interstate doesnt always give you much to look at- worse if you miss the entire trip because your glued to a portable boob tube.