I am usually flying solo without the daddybear when I am driving our 15 passenger van that we call the vanbus with our 8 kids- and often a few bonus children. The thought of that may give you anxiety and I won’t lie and tell you that we are calm and collected all the time in the vanbus, but more often than not it is one of my favorite times to be with my kids. I love that they are all right there, buckled in (most of the time :-/ …Inga!) , with nothing to do except visit with me. We have some great conversations here and I think if you ask the kids they would also say that they enjoy our roadtrips.

Here is a collage of our vanbus adventures over the years- hey, I have even hauled vintage campers with my vanbus- haha!

Here are some tips to make travelling with children enjoyable:

Allow extra time

If you have to be somewhere in a hour and it usually takes 20 minutes to get there- add about 30 extra minutes. This way you are not rushed and if you happen to get there early then you can sit in the parking lot for a minute, have the kids help pick up the van, change a diaper, or maybe you’ll just go inside early 🙂

With kids, and especially with multiple kids there are always tiny emergencies like, “I can’t find my shoes!” or “I have to go get one more thing!” or “I have to go to the bathroom!” and if you have added extra time these things are all fine, but if you are running on time or late they can cause a mommy meltdown! So we always allow way more time than we think we will need and usually we run early and confuse people- haha!

Strategic seating

Our seating arrangement in the vanbus is not accidental. It was very strategic. I may have even made a diagram with possible seating combos before deciding <—-nerd alert! If there are kids that tend to argue more than others (Evy and Inga…ahem…) then you want to be sure to NOT sit them together. If you have small children then they need to be seated next to a big kid to help them with all their little needs (dropping a sippy cup, holding a bottle, wiping faces, putting shoes on, etc.)

I also like to put my big kids as close to the front because I really enjoy talking to them in the van and if they are way in the back we don’t visit as much. I put a big kid by the controls for the dvd player too because I do not have the mental capacity to deal with the dvd player and drive 🤷‍♀️

Incentives and rewards (clip system)

This is our clip system for incentives and rewards. I am sure I stole this idea from somewhere, but I can’t remember where…Basically, each child (except the baby) has a clip with their initial on it. The clips are above my head when I drive- we have a mid roof Ford Transit van- but you could put them somewhere else if you don’t have freakishly tall ceilings in your vehicle.

If a child is bickering or causing problems or not wearing their seat belt I take their clip down. And if you are a kid and your clip is removed that is a big freakin deal because clips= rewards. It may not be every single trip, but I tell the kids that I keep track of who lost their clip and when I get a big bag of candy to share they will get less because of their behavior choices in the van. They also lose their clip when I am ordering food and they are loud. It is amazing how well this works and how much more enjoyable our trips are with the clip system. You are welcome.

Pep talk

When we are about 5 minutes from our destination I turn the radio off and ask the kids to look around and pass trash forward. We have a full size trash can in our van that is emptied frequently! I remind them to get their shoes on if they have taken them off and I pass wet wipes back for them to wipe their faces- also, how do kids get so dirty and make so much trash on a 20 minute trip?! Anyway, I digress.

Then about 2 minutes before we get to where we are going I have a little pep talk with the kids reminding them of my expectations for their behavior while we are there and I tell them how much I love them and how awesome they are. They usually have questions about something and we talk about those and then when we arrive it is orderly and everyone is calm and ready to go!

Make it fun!

Road trips with children- whether it is to church or to Florida – can be enjoyable and can be something you look forward to! There are so many fun games to play while in the van that require zero preparation- like ‘I spy’ or ‘count the red cars’ or ‘lets learn 5 new things about this state,’ etc. We recently got a game called family talk that has questions to ask your kids while you are travelling. I have this on our van console and the big kids love reading questions and taking turns answering them.

I hope these tried and true tips help make your car or vanbus rides more enjoyable! Let me know if these help you or if you have any new tips to add!

Until next time,