5 Tips for Making Driving with Kids More Peaceful for Everyone, According to RV Families

Once upon a time, family road trips were all but guaranteed to feature a few recurring elements: sibling bickering, the license plate game, and the phrase “Are we there yet?” on repeat.

Built-in movie screens, tablets, and other digital entertainment have helped make long car rides a little more bearable, but they’re not always foolproof for keeping the kids engaged. Now that road trip season is in full swing, we turned to the experts: Parents who traverse the U.S. with their children, clocking in hours on the highway in an RV.

Read on for their best tips on how to keep everyone in the car happy — and the parents from swearing to turn this car around if you touch your brother one more time! (Just us?)

Limit screen time

“When our kids get too much screen time in the car, they get cranky, aren't being stimulated, constantly say they are bored, and overall are just more grumpy,” says Rachel Oldenburger, of  @rv.family.reno.

Oldenburger spent years renovating RVs for clients, and now rents out her own (when she and her family aren’t using it to hit lakes, beaches, and beautiful campgrounds around the country). As surprising as it sounds, the mom of two says her kids behave better on long road trips when their screen time is limited.

Go in with a plan

Oldenburger suggests making a game plan long before you pack up the car. During a recent 18-hour trip, she estimated they would stop for gas about every three hours, and created a schedule with three hour-long blocks that reset after every pit stop. “This way, the kids know what to expect,” she says. “There is less arguing, and it's just something to look forward to during a road trip that seems never-ending!”

For Jessica Roderick, who spent three adventurous years living in an RV with her family and is the creator behind family.of.nomads, she says when her kids were younger they would take a break from driving every hour, “no matter what."

“I would set a timer — that they could see — for an hour, and they would know that when the timer was ending I would start looking for a place to stop, even if it’s just to stretch our legs and walk around for a few minutes," she says. "The timer prevented the “are we there yet” refrain, “and if kids know what’s going on and what to expect, they usually will do a lot better on long road trips."

Bring the best activities

Hour one of Oldenburger’s schedule is for art and activities, including coloring books, crayons, and activity kits that come with dry erase markers. She also recommends a travel tray for each kid, which can help keep their gear and snacks organized. Meanwhile, Lauren Grijalva, the mom of two who runs The Wanderpreneurs along with her husband, Aaron, says that their 11- and 13-year-olds love to read. “They will often read an entire novel in one sitting if we’re traveling, so we make sure they have a good book!” she says. 

Take advantage of the togetherness

Regular life filled with busywork and school schedules can make it tough to stop long enough to have a real conversation with your kids. Take advantage of car time together, when there are no outside distractions, to connect with your crew.

For Jessica Roderick of @family.of.nomads, road trips are the best way to get her three kids talking. “It’s uninterrupted time together, and not always, but a lot of the time we end up having really great conversations that would be hard to have at home because someone is always busy or gets distracted,” she says.

For Oldenburger, her schedule’s "hour two: block centers on more engaging time together, chatting, listening to music, and playing games, including I Spy and the timeless license plate game. 

Okay, some screen time is fine

Inevitably, you're going to need to get the screens out during an 18-hour trip — but you can be smart about how to dole it out in a way that keeps the kids entertained without becoming full-on zombies.

During hour three of their schedule, Oldenburger’s kids usually opt to play a game on their Switch or watch a show on their tablet. “We purposely put this as the last hour of the rotation so that when we stop for gas, that's the clear end time for tablet time and then we go back to playing with the activity tables when we get back on the road,” she notes. 

For Molly and Jaren Garcia and their three kids, the full-time RV-ing family behind WePlusThreee, life in a motor home makes it feel much easier to stay entertained.

“But for longer travel days my kids love to grab their Nintendo Switches and play games together by sharing their controllers,” says Molly Garcia. At the moment, the kids are particularly partial to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Human: Fall Flat, she notes.

But the screens stay in the vehicle: “When we get to a location we explore outside and electronics become a thing of the past.”