Holiday Travel Stress & Joy!

Military.com|by Working Mother

Thanksgiving is upon us and statistics show it's the most traveled weekend of the year. But many people hold their travel to the week between Christmas and New Year's when schools are closed.

The number one holiday destination is to see family-maybe it's grandparents who live far away in a retirement community, or maybe they are back home and you and your family have set up life elsewhere. Some of you might have really big plans to visit relatives a continent away.

Financial stress doesn't make travel decisions any easier, especially where airfares are necessary. We've been told by the best, if you haven't booked plane tickets by now, prices are high and there are few deals left even for New Year's. But keep hunting!

If you are like me, and have traveled with your family before, you're ticking off the things that could go wrong. I am not talking about the big stuff, just the stuff that makes family life less boring. And maybe leaves you with a funny story afterwards.

Here are some scenarios:

Your 3 year old is potty training but hates public bathrooms, especially ones that smell. I can hear the cajoling and the screaming now! You are still nursing and wonder how you will keep up a schedule on the road. Your two children are at the wonderful ages of 6 and 8 and have a hard time sitting still for more than an hour in the car (or plane) without mayhem erupting.

Then once you've gotten to where your going, maybe it's a hotel or your sister's house or grandma's with several cousins who the kids barely know are also staying. You and the kids are bunking in close quarters. You are nervous the baby will wake everyone else up. Your teenager can't stand the smell coming from a nearby bathroom (really!). Toilets flushing in the night make your 5-year old crazy. Sharing a couch with her sister is not your daughter's idea of fun but the floor isn't looking too promising either, especially with Grandma's prized quilt. Grandma thought it would be cute if all the kids wore the same pajamas! Holiday partygoers are walking up and down the halls of the hotel or babies are crying in the next room. Oh, the possibilities!

So with all that in mind, I have a few ideas that might help get you through it all and make some wonderful memories in the process.

Planning ahead is the first key to taking some of the stress off traveling. If your children are middle school or older, make sure you discuss the dates you plan to travel and mark them boldly on a family calendar. Children at that age start to make their own plans, or think they do, and by being a part of this there won't be any yelling about, "I want to….." or "I didn't know we were going…" You get the idea. And remember just because you no longer pack baby things, older children can have just as hard a time "going away' as little ones.

For more help we asked Psychologist David Swanson, author of Help! My Kid Is Driving Me Crazy: The 17 Ways Kids Manipulate Their Parents and What You Can Do About It to give us some guidance. He provides eight simple strategies to take the heavy stress out of this or any travel season.

© Copyright 2011 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.