How To Plan a Short Trip

A Trip planner comes in very handy when it involves the entire family. We recently went on a short trip to visit Grandma's. The experience brought to light a few tips that we thought might be helpful.

Several days earlier we had planned the entire day as Grandma was taking the kids to see Thomas the Tank Engine and we wanted everything to go without a hitch. We wanted to take the scenic route so we made sure we ran a MapQuest first so we knew where we were going.

We took out our trip planner and accounted for every minute, with plenty of time to spare if some last minute things would come up. Well, guess what happened……you guessed it. The youngest started feeling sick and the oldest was on a stubborn streak. But that was OK, we had planned in extra time for things like this so we were still right on time.

In the past we wouldn’t have built in the extra time and everyone would have been stressed out and irritable. Not this time. I can not tell you how nice it was to be organized. It definitely saved us from some ill advised arguments and undue strain on our marriage. Not to mention the arguing in front of the children.

If you are new to this (having children) and want to make your life run a lot smoother, review the tips below that made our trip much more pleasurable.

1) Plan well ahead. At least a day, a week if possible

2) Use your planner and follow it

3) Build in extra time for emergencies, they will always happen

4) Stay calm and remember that children are still children

5) Be a positive roll model when handling problems as they arise.

6) The most important point, use a trip planner and Enjoy yourself!