For a Successful Road Trip, Keep Your Kids Mildly Dehydrated
Strategic dehydration, a wife carrying the week with a smile, a 9th-place run dodging two broken ankles, a bedtime chat over who can be an Elder, and a boy racing back outside to dance in the rain -- oh my.
A friend is leaving soon on a road trip. His family – wife and four children – will tour some national parks – Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons. He clearly loves his family more than I love mine. Three day drive there. Three day drive back. Plus whatever touring they actually do. He has four young kids, roughly the same age as my own. I offered some unsolicited tips and tricks. Let's dig in.
First, I know they’re fairly strict about screens for their kids, so naturally I suggested (in front of his kids) that he distributes an iPad to each of them. He can borrow my Starlink mini for non-stop internet access. It turns out he is thinking books on tape, but I think iPads are the better choice. Now his kids know.
My second tip is all about hydration. Or dehydration, more specifically. Well-hydrated kids require frequent bathroom stops, and that’ll turn the three day / thirty hour drive to Yellowstone into something much, much worse. That won’t abide. You wait until the gas gauge gets below the half way mark, possibly close to the one quarter mark. Only then do you distribute beverages. Even then, sparingly. They’ll be ready for the bathroom around the time you need to refill gas, which they can learn to accomplish in the time it takes to pump gas. Zero lost time is the goal here. You fall behind, you get left behind. Fear is the motivator.
