Skip to main content

Road trip with kids: A 5100-mile journey

Many thought that I was crazy. They assumed I would end the nonsense and turn around.  They were certain, if I didn't, I would be committed, and I agreed with them.  But, I'm a stubborn mom and was determined to prove everyone wrong.  So, thus began a month-long journey, covering over 5100 miles (round trip) through the U.S. with just Mom and two kids, plus an SUV half-filled with food, DVDs, and busy boxes.

The trip was planned not only for summer vacation but for sanity during a military deployment.  It was also planned to maximize the number of family members we could visit.  The route was planned but no hotels were booked due to the uncertainty of traveling with young children. I researched the best way to keep kids sane during road trips, buying books, craft projects, educational materials, and new DVDs.  I built a new Spotify playlist with songs that would be soothing to me as the driver, but also be something suitable for my children's listening ears. The car was packed.  The kids were loaded.  The Costco-sized tub of Jelly Beans was sitting in the passenger seat.  We were ready to go.

Over the course of the 31 days, I learned many things about myself and my kids.  For one, there are only so many times you can hear the same movie over and over - despite how happy and calm it makes your children - before you just can't take it anymore.  A quick stop to refuel and use the restroom is never actually a quick stop.  Teaching your kids the age-old signal to have a semi honk it's horn makes you feel young again and fills your kids with excitement when the semi's fulfill this request.  And, despite any stresses due to 10-13 hour-long days of driving, the magnificence of the continually changing scenery as you drive across the U.S. is something that can be appreciated by anyone at any age.

Some say that I was brave to take on a road trip of this magnitude without my husband - with him, literally, oceans away.  Not only was I dealing with the typical stresses of family travel, but I had no one there to counteract my moods or my kids' moods...except during the road stops and overnights surrounded by strangers or family members who were so excited to see us that they often didn't realize the - at times - overwhelming stresses we were under when we hadn't spoken to Daddy in days because of lack of cell phone coverage or time zone changes, not to mention the hours of sitting in summer road construction traffic.

Throughout the next few weeks as I share my story of a month in a car, just me and my kids, I hope you enjoy the ups and downs we went through.

Day 1: The car is packed, we're ready to go!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Leadership Mom: SWOT Analysis

In business, leaders often analyze our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats through a SWOT analysis.  So, if we are going to look at our role as moms as being the greatest leadership opportunity to us, let's start with analyzing ourselves and our kids.  Here's the SWOT I developed for my family: Family SWOT Analysis As a doting mother, there are hundreds of strengths that I could put up here for my kids.  Their hugs, kisses, bedtime stories and prayers, the fact that they come to me when they're seeking healing from an injury (physical or emotional), the notes and drawings they make for me, their precious hearts when they try to help me or that they've learned how to use the Keurig to bring me coffee in the morning...I could go on and on. Now, here's the part where we get honest with ourselves.  Yes, we love our kids and we love our family (or, hopefully, most of the time), but we are not perfect.  Nor should we be perfect.  As we analy...

Cybersecurity 101

One of the things that continually amazes me as a parent of young(er) children is their ability to quickly understand technology and its uses.  Not only have my children learned the art of swiping to use different devices, but they've also learned how to access apps, take pictures, answer calls (both phone and Skype), and more.  My children could teach their grandparents a lesson or two on how to use technology. But, as a student of cybersecurity, I have seen a greater need to educate my children - as well as so many others - on the cybersecurity.  This goes beyond posting inappropriate pictures and unfriendly words on social media (although these lessons must also be taught).  This goes into the nature of understanding the benefits and risks of using technology and the privacy lost to it.  The major premise that must be understood in regards to cybersecurity is that information/data is money.  It's value is continually increasing.  We need to secure...

Why can't they just be friends?

Why can't my kids just be friends?  I must ask myself this question hundreds of times during the week.  I thought that having kids relatively close together was going to be great.  They'd have a playmate and an automatic friend.  However, the truth is that - most of the time - they don't get along.  It's not that they're enemies...it's that they drive each other crazy.  They each want the other one to do what they want to do.  Then, when the other one does what they want, they get mad at them because they wanted to do it themselves. They don't want to share their toys.  Then, they play together only to then get mad and purposefully break the other sibling's toys. They want to get the other one in trouble so that they look like the "good" child and get more rewards.  Then they get upset that the other sibling got them in trouble when they *tattled* on them. At mealtimes, they want to sit where the other one is sitting.  They wan...