How Do You Keep Your Kids Distracted During Road Trips?

It turns out, you could cut your kids some slack. That's not me saying that, by the way, it's this survey. It found that the super annoying, "are we there yet?" doesn't happen as soon as we think. In fact, kids are WAY more patient than we give 'em credit for.

According to the survey, the majority of kids start asking "Are we there yet?" two hours and 23 minutes into a road trip. If you answer no, then count on about 14 more minutes of harmony and then BAM!  Fussing and fighting will commence!

How do you stop the fussin' and fightin' and end up with li'l angels like these...

Look how well behaved they are! That's the tip-off that they're either in the first 2 and a half hours of the trip, Stepford Kids, or the adults in the car followed these guidelines...

Minitime suggests family trivia.

For long trips in the car we play "Family Trivia.” My husband and I ask the kids trivia questions about family members. This is a great way to share family history with each generation. When our kids were little, we started out with simple questions and as they got older we made the questions harder. It is now a game they love to play and share their knowledge of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

Another suggestion from Minitime is to get the kid involved in answering their own question...

When my 8-year-old asks "Are we there yet?," I hand him the map and ask him to figure out how much longer we’ll be on the road. Knowing how to read a map is a valuable life skill, so it makes me happy that he’s learning, and he’s happier that he has a job to do.

Bring along some homemade Gack!

How Stuff Works says to start simple...lay it out for your kids!

It's such a simple concept, you might not think of it -- telling your kids ahead of time how you expect them to behave. It's good to give children boundaries, so share each day's agenda with them and explain the family rules. For example, you might say you'll be driving from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., stopping for a picnic lunch around noon. The kids will each get to bring two of their favorite toys, and you'll supply snacks and water. Each person can choose music for an hour and can't complain about someone else's choice. Everyone must use the restroom during stops, and you'll take away the toys of any child who misbehaves.

How 'bout electronics? Well, you can use phones, pads, laptops, DVD's, etc...but you could also give 'em something that'll bring out their creative side. Cozio says, .

Consider buying your kids their own digital cameras. I found some sub-$50 “real” cameras (as opposed to the Fisher-Price type) for my kids, and they’ve used them a lot. In addition to taking pictures at stops, they make movies of each other in the car and have fun changing the settings on the camera.

And finally, if all else fails,

Cardboard Toilet Paper Tube Octopus to the rescue! Here's how to make it.

How do you keep your kids occupied?