Car trips need not be stressful

Many of you will be traveling down the highways this summer on a vacation. Whether your car or van is transporting small children or teenagers, you can avoid stress by planning ahead. Families need to plan for togetherness on a trip, as well as for space and privacy.

Here are some tips to make this year’s trip more fun and a source of wonderful memories.

• Have your car or vehicle in top running form. Be sure it is fresh and clean, particularly inside. Equip it with a first aid kit for your family and a kit of necessary tools for quick auto repairs. A safe, clean and efficient vehicle provides the proper mind-set for a less stress-filled trip.

• Work out the itinerary to plan for rest stops along the way. Plan to make each day’s destination a stop at mid-afternoon or very early evening. Try swimming, exercising, sightseeing or relaxing to break up the tension of the day’s travel. Prior to leaving home, have someone research areas of interest along the route. Point out historical landmarks and spots of scenic beauty. Organizations such as the American Automobile Association provide this information for members.

• Let passengers switch seating arrangements periodically. Besides providing variety, it also decreases boredom. Scenery changes from a different vantage point. If more than one traveler is a safe driver, switch places with the driver who needs respite from tension and fatigue.

• Be creative in seeking diversions for each family member. Music is soothing and restful, but not all parents enjoy the same type of music as adolescents. Each can have their own listening pleasure through the use of tape recorders and inexpensive headphones. Books on tape, a great entertainment for small children as well as adults, provide a quiet restful time and free the drive from noise distraction.

Recently we took a portable video-cassette recorder and a small television monitor in our station wagon. Family members seated in the back watched prerecorded movies after I plugged the VCR/monitor into the cigarette lighter.

• Games, riddles and books can make the miles melt away. Rolling down the interstate can be a time for families to enjoy testing one another’s wit, and then laughing together and exploring new concepts as a family. Some families make up their own games as they drive along. Even the old favorite, I Spy, and one that even very young children can play, means miles of contentment. Letting the family practice visual imagery with one member being the leader and the others the followers is another idea for helping keep down tension and boredom.

• Don’t expect every minute of the trip to be free from tension and frustration. Instead, learn to develop a sense of humor. Learn to laugh at family situation and unexpected foibles. Above all, don’t use this time to criticize each other or discuss controversial material that could lead to hard feelings and conflicts.

By providing space and privacy, and by utilizing this time of confinement to strengthen the family unit, family vacations will become movies in the mind, unforgettable memories of the past.

Here’s hoping for a good vacation for you and your family.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1986