A little planning can prevent problems when traveling with kids

There’s a reason why traveling with kids is a comedic staple of TV shows and movies (See: “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” et al.)

It’s because whenever you cram a frazzled parent or two into a confined space with a bunch of rambunctious kids, stressful things can happen.

But surviving a trip with kids doesn’t have to be fodder for Hollywood’s next road-trip comedy. Several area parents say roadside or airborne problems can be prevented with a bit of planning and maybe even a dash of humor.

For that last one, consider the tactic Holly Silvestri, a principal of The Ferraro Group, employed when her twin daughters were younger. The girls now are 11 and are “great travelers,” she says.

But before trips to New York when the girls were 1½ and again when they were 3, “I went out and bought several (packages of) earplugs and figured I’d just pass them out to people sitting all around us,” Silvestri says. “Everyone loved it and they were very positive during the flight.”

The girls were fine, too, she adds. “I just wanted make light of it and sort of apologize in advance to people around me to let them know you’re keeping your child as quiet as possible, but it can’t always succeed.”

Silvestri also had packed packs of stickers — “I feel like I’ve invested in the sticker business,” she says — and construction paper and crayons to give the girls something to do to keep them busy during the flight.

The same tactic works on car trips, too, Silvestri adds. “Stickers don’t cause a huge mess.”

When things become boring, also be ready to play a few games. “I Spy” worked well during car trips to California, Silvestri says, just as iPad games work well now.

“Now that my girls are 11, they’re on the iPhone, they play games with each other and watch video,” Silvestri says. “It’s just a totally different thing now.”

Another kid-travel tip: Plan your daily drives to avoid rush hours, “so you’re not stuck in a car for eight

hours instead of five hours,” Silvestri says.

Jeff Grace, chief executive officer of NetEffect, a Las Vegas information technology company, has kids ages 3½ and 5½, and Grace says the family splits its travel about evenly between car and plane trips.

“Our kids are pretty good traveling, and I give my wife all of the credit for our successful travel,” Grace says, in part because Dina “packs so much stuff — snacks and iPads and coloring books.”

Also included in the family’s boredom-fighting arsenal are sticker books, easy-to-eat snacks and “various toys,” Grace says. “So they’ve got a ton of different things to play with and snack on.”

Then, “we play music games with them,” Grace says. “Our 5-year-old, her favorite when she’s really bored is, she has to hum a song — ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ or ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ — and somebody will begin humming that song and the others have to guess what song it is.”

Jocelyn Bates, electronic resources manager for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, has three children ages 12, 8 and 2. The two older kids are good travelers, while the youngest is, she admits, “good for about a couple of hours” before becoming restless.

The family usually drives when making trips such as the one they took about three years ago to visit relatives in Spokane, Washington.

“My oldest son, he kept a travel diary,” Bates says. “It was just a small notebook. He was able to write about and draw the cool places he went to and saw, and he still has that book. I keep it up in the attic. But it kept him entertained at the time.

“Another thing we did is, we brought new toys they had never had. So right about the time they got bored, we had, like, our little box that had all kinds of little toys in there that would keep them engaged.”

Before setting out, Bates also purchased a few inexpensive iPad games that the children could play when they got bored. “Only 99-cent games,” she adds, “but totally worth it.”

Another family travel tip: “We left super-early in the morning,” Bates says. “It was like 3 in the morning, so they were asleep and they slept while we drove.”

Dr. Nathan York, a pediatrician with Sunshine Valley Pediatrics, has five children, ages 14, 12, 10, 5 and 4, who “always have been good travelers.”

While living in Dallas, where York did his medical training, he and his wife, Jenifer, did “a couple of 24-hour car rides” with the kids to visit family members here in Las Vegas.

“There are, obviously, technological advances to traveling in this day and age,” York says, but, back then, sing-alongs — “we’d go through lots of ‘Old MacDonald’ and ‘The Farmer in the Dell’ and those kinds of songs” — would help to keep the kids engaged during the trip.

“We played old-fashioned road games. We tried to spot license plates, and (played) the Alphabet Game, using billboards and road signs to get A to Z,” York says. “We’d pack prizes for the kids who spotted certain letters, if you’d find a Z or a J or some of the other lesser letters.”

They’d also break the monotony by stopping at landmarks along the way. “We’d hit a certain spot in Albuquerque, a certain spot in Flagstaff, a certain spot in Amarillo,” York says.

“Back in those days, Wal-Mart was open 24 hours, so most of the time we could go to Wal-Mart and walk around Wal-Mart for 20 minutes and let the kids stretch their legs and go to the bathroom, and replenish snacks.”

A few other tips: Pack a few rolls of paper towels, bottles of water, diapers and wipes. For snacks, opt for carrots, apple slices or other foods that “can be picked up without too much mess, versus pudding snacks or applesauce,” York says. “Those are just easier to clean up. And, of course, water, instead of juice or soda, is not only (more) nutritional but easier to clean up.”

Finally, try to remember that traveling offers parents a good opportunity to spend time with their kids.

“I think our day-to-day lives are so incredibly busy and hectic,” Grace says. “When we travel, it’s kind of nice to slow down the pace.

“The stuff that is keeping (kids) occupied is good, but my wife and I see it as an opportunity to really talk with and engage the kids.”

Read more from John Przybys at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com and follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.