AND get pictures of it while you’re at it!

Just getting out the door to go to the grocery store can take ALLLLL morning with young kids. Eat breakfast. Wipe faces. Go potty. Get everyone dressed. Make the list. Re-dress the kids that un-dressed….again. Go potty. Put shoes on. Pack snacks. Eat the snacks before you leave because they are starving. Wipe the faces again. Go potty, etc. It’s exhausting. As I typed only that introduction, Finn asked me to follow him to his room to see his creation twice and I had to go wipe Rita’s bottom too.

Even the thought of preparing to get the kids out of the house makes me tired. So, how are you supposed to have special outings…and actually enjoy them at the same time? Take pictures to “capture the memory” too? Forget it!

Four kids and a business taking pictures of squirmy kids later, I have a few tips that might help you actually make it happen…regularly. And, maintain an acceptable level of insanity to enjoy it at the same time.

1. Don’t go it alone if you don’t have to

If you have a spouse, parent or friend who can help you prepare or go with you, that’s awesome! One person can be on kid-duty while the other packs and you can divide and conquer while out. Teamwork makes the dreamwork. BUT many of us can’t always go on outings as a family all the time. In our house (and especially since we are both working from home now) we are going it alone on outings with the kids more and more to get them out of the house so the other can work. I have the kids during the day on the weekdays and Marc has them on the weekends.

2. Don’t over-plan

Yes, you heard me right. Don’t spend hours researching your destination and making lists of all the things you want to do while you are there. It’s not a bad idea to know something about your destination but don’t waste your time on a plan that will probably fall through anyway. My favorite thing to do for a spontaneous adventure with my small children is to look at a map, decide how far I am willing to drive and pick a state park within those limits. I will google the park to make sure there aren’t any red-flags but that’s it! Almost all state parks have everything we need to have a good time together (for us): nature, bathroom, walking trails, picnic tables and most even have playgrounds.

3. Keep is simple

Pack a simple lunch (I do PPJ, apple, chips and water) or pick up some fast food along the way if that’s your barrier to getting out of the house. Bring the essentials and a few little toys.

The less you bring, the less you have to pack and keep track of. Don’t forget your camera if you want to bring it but just bring one lens (two tops). If you are worrying about changing lenses and keeping track of your gear, it will just be added stress. Bring one camera that you can strap to yourself and one lens. I don’t even bring my camera bag. Or JUST USE YOUR PHONE! My kids tend to get a lot less stressed out about having their photo taken in every day life with my phone than the big camera. It just seems less formal for everyone. Plus, they also know how to take pictures with my phone so we can take turns. That helps them feel more involved in the picture-taking process.

4. Time it right

I try to time things so that the kids can nap or rest in the car during the driving part whether it’s on the way to the destination or on the way back. My best case scenario is: I’m packing up the car while the kids eat their morning snack, drive and then arrive at the place and have a picnic lunch right away when we arrive. That way it’s done and we can move on with the fun and their bellies are good and full to play longer. Then, they might sleep on the way home.

5. Be flexible

Half way to your destination and the kids are already crying and picking on each other? Stop somewhere else. Don’t force it. If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be. Take the next exit off the highway and see what you can find. You can find a playground in any town. Make that the new adventure! For kids, as long as they can play freely, they’re happy. For parents, as long as the kids are having fun, you will too. It doesn’t have to be a Yelp top-10 destination to have a good time. One of our favorite stops on our vacation this year was a random park off the highway to have lunch. It was a real diamond in the rough kind of place and I’ll never forget it. Our kids bring up that park just as much as the beach in conversation…and it was free.

6. Don’t force the pictures

This may be your favorite part of the whole trip but you cannot force it. Let me repeat that: You cannot force the pictures. On our outing yesterday, the second I started pushing, “Come on Finn, can I just take one picture of you here? It’s soooo pretty! I promise you’ll love how you look. Come on, just stand riiiight here and…here’s how that ended up for me:

Keep your camera close and be ready to snap one when they are having fun. Ask. But if the answer’s no, respect it. I know it’s hard. I mean, you lugged your camera all this way and it’s the one thing you really wanted from this day for yourself…the kids don’t understand that and you are the adult here. YOU need to model respecting someone else’s wishes and how to act when you don’t get your way. No means no. Yes, it applies here too.

I am all about posing pictures but most of the time, you cannot pose kids. They do not understand what you are doing most of the time and they just want to play…so let them and capture that. If you luck out that your kid lets you take a posed picture, awesome! Just don’t force it.

7. Get them involved with the pictures in a fun way

Finn’s favorite part of this adventure was making a pile of slimy leaves and algae from the stream. Gross. I know. But he was excited to make a HUGE pile for me to take a picture of. My real goal was take a picture of him but this was how I did it. He helped me take a picture of his creation that he was so proud of and then he was happy to let me take a picture of him with it (as long as I did it really quickly and didn’t make a big deal out of it).

8. Just go home

When they are toast…just go. Only made it 30 minutes? That’s okay. Be happy you had 30 minutes and go. Pushing will never make fun happen with kids. The more you are able to show your kids that you can be a flexible thinker, the more likely they are to learn that from you.

9. It might be about the pictures…but it’s not about the pictures

You love taking pictures (trust me I get that…I really, really get that) but adventures with the kids should be more about the experience together than it is about the pictures. Your kids need to know that you want to be there with them just because you love them and because they are worthy to spend time with. I always make certain to put the camera down or away at some point. Yesterday, I physically unstrapped my camera even though it was attached to my body and I was hands-free and put it down on the park bench to push them on the swings to show them that I wanted to play with them. The last thing I want is for my kids to feel like models or that their only worth to me is if they are “picture-worthy” at any given moment. This sound dramatic but if you are only paying attention to your kids when you’re taking picture of them, they will learn that they must be something different than they are to get attention. It starts young my friends.

10. Say thank you

Let them know how much you love spending time with them. Thank them for the experience. At bedtime we do “Peak and Pit.” I learned it from Katherine Wintsch, author of Slay Like a Mother. Every night at bedtime we all share a time in the day that we felt really great (peak) and a time in the day that we felt really awful (pit). It helps them to realize in retrospect when calm and thoughtful that there are always going to be good parts and hard parts of our lives. We can then talk about what made those experiences to great or not-so-great and learn from them. This is a great time to talk about the adventure and plan for ways to do it even better the next time. These are life skills that will be so helpful to them throughout their lives.

Happy adventuring!

XO - Megan

Do you have an adventure peak or pit you might be willing to share? Leave a comment and share.

10 Tips for Stress-Free Adventures with Young Kids