Traveling For Thanksgiving - Keeping Kids Busy

Thanksgiving is a time for gathering the family, but how do you keep kids interested while in the car or sitting in airports? Have them keep journals.

Thanksgiving Travel

Nothing beats getting your extended family together for Thanksgiving. It is a great time to catch up and laugh about old times. The only aggravating thing, of course, is actually traveling to meet up. There are already stories of travel nightmares in the news two days before Thanksgiving. This can be particularly troubling if you have kids who become easily bored. 

In these days of the Internet and video games, the average child seems to have an attention span of about 30 seconds. If a glassy-eyed child killing things on a screen is not your idea of good thing, what alternatives do you have? Giving your child a writing journal is a great way to keep them busy without resorting to violent video games. 

For many kids, the only way to truly get their attention on a thanksgiving trip is to get them involved. The best method for doing this is to give them a journal and ask them to keep notes on everything they seem. At the end of the day, they should be encouraged to write a journal entry about what happened during the day. It will give them an outlet for their thoughts, promote good writing skills and preserve family experiences they would otherwise forget with time. 

How to Travel with Food for the Holidays

Preparing food to share at the holiday festivities is a common practice in our society. However, you need to be able to travel with the food so that it will remain delicious when you arrive at your destination. Foods can move around causing them not to look as pretty when you arrive. You also don’t want the food to tip over and get all over your vehicle. This can be extremely messy as well as be quite frustrating.

There are some wonderful containers out there that allow you to transport foods for the holidays without too much trouble. They are insulated containers that will keep the foods hot or cold. Many of them come with a covering that zips up around them like a suitcase. They even come with a handle. You should consider placing these items in a box so they won’t have as much room to move around while you travel to your holiday destination.

You do need to be very careful about food spoiling when you transport it for the holidays. You definitely don’t want to get anyone sick due to food poisoning. If it will be hot or you are traveling a long distance avoid foods such as potato salad with mayonnaise that can easily spoil quickly. Be prepared for delays too because the amount of people traveling on the roads over the holidays can result in the food being in your car for hours more than you had originally anticipated. 

You can also place such items in a cooler with plenty of ice to keep them cold while you are traveling your holiday destination. Make sure you keep an eye on the amount of ice in the cooler and then refill it as necessary. If you are carrying breast milk for an infant along for the holiday travel you need to keep it cold in a cooler as well. 

Children Traveling alone for the Holidays

Due to the number of non-traditional families in our society, it is common for custody agreements to require children to travel over the holidays to be with the other parent. This is an issue that many parents have to deal with in the best way possible. If the parents live in close proximity they can easily drive them to the agreed upon destination. If the divorce is amicable it may even be possible for each parent to drive half way for the exchange of the children.

However, it isn’t always possible for parents to be able to do this for one reason or another and that means that children will end up traveling alone for the holidays. You want to make this as smooth of a process for them as you possibly can. Make sure you talk to your child about the process and they know exactly what will be taking place. It is important that you talk to them about not going with strangers for any reason while they are traveling alone for the holidays.

Make sure you pack your child plenty of activities for them to entertain themselves during the flight. It is a good idea to pack them drinks and snacks too in case they get hungry. Never leave your child until they have boarded the type of transportation they are taking. If there is a layover or a cancellation they will be left alone.

The holidays are upon us

Do difficult relatives ruin your holidays year after year? I had a colleague, Traci, who proclaimed a few weeks before Thanksgiving that the family gathering would be ruined as usual because of her sister-in-law, husband, and meddlesome nephew. She had a defeatist attitude plus she figuratively put on full battle gear ready to go to war with these despicable in-laws.

I reminded her from previous conversations that you can’t change the other person, but by changing how you approach this person, you could get a more favorable response. I explained that the minute they walked in the door they would sense her hostility and react accordingly. I suggested that she pretend this is the first time they are meeting. Welcome them into her home and as the hostess, keep the conversation light.

At the same time, she can make wise decisions based on their experience with the misbehaving nephew. She has a right to set boundaries and enforce them if the parents don’t. What could she do differently this time since he didn’t listen previously to not touch the computer? Traci decided to remove the keyboard from the computer. She also denied him access to the hot tub, which he had damaged the previous year.