As a veteran parent of five kids, I’ve logged my fair share of miles in the name of the Great Family Road Trip over the past couple of decades. We are long past the stage of traveling with small children and the insane amount of gear that comes with them, but driving for more than a couple of hours with older kids in the car still necessitates a fair amount of planning. I’ll admit I like to think it’s hard to surprise me when it comes to tips and tricks for a successful road trip. After all, I’ve been making checklists for snacks, activities, first-aid, and various contingency plans for over 20 years. Yet our friends over at Cool Mom Picks managed to do just that when they recently posted about a simple, very outside-the-box solution for handling car sickness.
It’s a good one.
Are you ready?
It’s a potato. Specifically, the modest Russet. There are no studies backing this up, no science or even logical explanation that we can find, other than a lot of anecdotal evidence that it works, and in many cases, works better than some of the other popular solutions such as motion sickness bands, ginger gum, rubbing alcohol, or my second favorite obscure tip: placing an aspirin on your child’s belly. How does it work? You simply have your kiddo (or whoever gets carsick) hold the potato. That’s it.
This is definitely going in the arsenal for next time, along with our usual tried-and-true tactics for a great family road trip. Speaking of, if you’re like me and tend to stay focused on the packing and activities aspects of vacation, don’t forget to make sure your vehicle is also road-trip ready! On a whim, I once decided to get my tires rotated and inspected the day before a long, interstate trip with my family. Had I not, I wouldn’t have known one of my tires was nearly threadbare and needed to be replaced immediately. Part of our journey took us through a fairly isolated mountain range; I was grateful for the last-minute save but chagrined by my lack of foresight. Check out this handy list of things to inspect in your car before logging serious miles.
How do you survive road trips with the family? What are your favorite life hacks for keeping everyone on an even keel? And don’t forget: before you travel with kids, make sure to kiss your partner!
