Joey & Carla Link
June 24, 2026
Traveling and vacationing with your kids can be a fun time but also can feel exhausting to the point you almost wish you had stayed at home. We have written blogs about this recently, but with vacations coming we wanted to review it one more time. The fun part is being with your kids. There is nothing better than spending time with your kids unless it’s having a get-away with your spouse. But how do you deal with their bad attitudes when they don’t get their way? Here are some helpful tips to make traveling and going on vacation with your kids memorable vs. regrettable.
1. Keep kids on normal sleep routines. Tired kids have tired attitudes. This is always a good thing for parents to keep in mind. When you change your kids’ sleep routine, you need to expect negative attitude changes in them as well. Does this mean you don’t allow them to stay up late on your trip? No, you want to have fun, but taking naps or planning a day with fewer activities and running around is not a bad idea either.
When we still had little kids who napped daily, Joey or I would take turns staying with them so they could nap while the older kids got to do things the younger kids may not enjoy.
2. Eating right will also impact kid’s energy, sleep and attitudes. When traveling, eating a steady diet of pizza and chicken nuggets does not give your kids the balanced nutrition they need. This does not mean it’s wrong to ever eat fast food. Just be sure you are balancing it out with healthy snacks like fruit at other times.
3. Bad attitudes and bad behavior. Letting kids get away with talking to you disrespectfully or arguing with you, or picking on their siblings will set a negative tone for your family. Your kids will think it’s okay to treat you and their siblings the same way when they get back home too. Nip those bad attitudes in the bud when you first hear them, before the attitude gets worse by spreading to other family members.
When in public, deal with it by giving your kids one reminder, and ask them if they are going to be able to bring their bad attitude under control? Or will you have to do it for them by giving them a consequence, such as having to sit out an activity while their siblings get to enjoy it? If they say they will get it under control, give them 5 minutes to change it and hold them accountable for keeping a good attitude.
If the warning isn’t enough and you are at a hotel or a relative’s house, take them to the room you are staying in and have them sit quietly. Tell them to let you know when they are ready to apologize. Our kids used to say we were embarrassing them, especially when we were staying with relatives, and we would tell them their bad attitude and wrong behavior was embarrassing our family and this was their chance to get it under control.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another
and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these,
put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony”.
Colossians 3:12-14 ESV
| ON SALE! |
| Why Can’t I Get My Kids to Behave?Parents get frustrated when they don’t know what to do when their kids misbehave. This book shares solutions for putting biblical principles into practice with kids. It tells what obedience is, what obedience is not, how to get your kids to obey and offers help for single parents. By Joey & Carla Link Use code BEHAVE at checkout by 6/28/26 for $2 off |
Parenting Made Practical Podcasts
#122 Traveling & Vacationing with Your Kids
Everyone in the family looks forward to vacation with great anticipation. At least that is until they get in the car or on the plane to travel. Soon all good intentions fly out the window when siblings start picking on each other, and Mom and Dad are wondering why they think traveling with the kids is a good idea. In this podcast, you will find many practical tips and ideas for traveling and being on a trip with your kids, lessons learned from the Link family’s full-time travels when their kids were growing up.
Click the title or search Parenting Made Practical in your favorite
podcast app to listen!