Tantrums On The Trail

Most of what I show of the kids is wonderfully positive. But as you may know, I’m all for keeping it real. We have bad days. Our kids have bad days. Sure we try to stick to a schedule, feed them well and make sure they get plenty of rest. But they’re kids. They have melt downs.

The only difference between now and when we were living in a home is that now 90% of the kids meltdowns are in public, in front of people. This makes it a little harder on them and us.

Before we left I can honestly say that Jane had only had maybe 2 public meltdowns ever. She was a really well behaved kid. She still is but now we’re asking so much of her. We’re asking so much of both she and Wilson. They’re constantly outside and hiking trails many adults would find draining. They’re constantly traveling, adjusting to different time zones and every few days when they open up the door there are new surroundings. It’s hard on us so we know it has to be hard on them.

One of my kind friends told me the other day “Your kids are going to have tantrums anywhere, why not let them have them some place beautiful.” As Jane was crying on the ground, at my feet, in the middle of a trail this morning while groups of tourists stared at us I took a deep breath and looked around. Beautiful trees, gorgeous mountains, bison, pronghorns, have at it girl. Stare at me tourists. I’m going to be strong and consistent in my parenting and indeed not walk another step until she pulls it together. But my friend was right. All the ugly soon drained and the beauty that surrounded us remained. We went on to have a great day.

Here are some things that work well for us while we’re traveling to help minimize the tantrums:

1) Keep the kids well fed with healthy foods and hydrated.
2) Make sure they have plenty of sleep at night and make it home most days in time for rest.
3) Take the afternoons to do something just for them i.e. playground, throwing rocks into a stream, letting them just play with some of their toys.
4) Have a down day every so often. This is a day where we might run to the grocery store or do some errands but other than that we just hang out around the RV and let them ride bikes and have free play.
5) Make special “alone” time for each of them. Jane especially needs this. She needs some 1:1 time just about every other day to be on her best behavior.

Do you have any other tantrum tips for travel?