Unfortunately, life’s little emergencies take no vacations. If you’re on the road and your child comes down with something, you’ll want to take a deep breath and carefully assess the situation. It is possible you may have to take action, but it’s also feasible your child just has a bug that will run its course and only require some TLC nurse.

The first thing to do is mark the symptoms. Find out just how high of a fever your child has. Check for other issues like a sore throat, runny nose, stomach complaints or other problems. Should the fever be too high or other complaints are serious enough, give your pediatrician back home a call or just head to an emergency clinic where you are.

Now, if your child’s complaints are minor and the fever is in the low-grade range you’re probably okay to continue on. Just take measures to make your little one comfortable and try to make plenty of fluids available. It might not be a bad idea to stop for the night early and let your child get some rest while you monitor symptoms.

When your child gets sick on the road, deciding to move ahead and turn around can be tough. Just relax and pay attention to the symptoms and let them guide you. While it’s never fun to waylay a vacation for illness, sometimes it might be the only option. Many times, however, a good night’s rest will do the trick and have you all feeling better in the morning.

Face it, long-distance travel is hard on everyone. With all the sitting around and waiting for the excitement of a vacation to begin, the hours can seem like weeks if you happen to be a kid. It can even seem that way if you’re not a kid.

So, how can parents break up the miles and make sure a ride is a little more fun for everyone in the car?

Little side trips or fun rest stops can make a big difference. Rather than having to wait 800 miles in a car for any fun to begin, brief detours can add a little adventure to the journey. Pick a place at the halfway point or every couple hundred miles to stop for a half-hour or an hour of out-of-the-car enjoyment. Some ideas that won’t necessarily cost you a fortune and are generally found just about anywhere a road trip might happen to take place include:

* Public parks – Rather than eat lunch in a costly restaurant, stop at a city, county or state park for a picnic. The kids will enjoy being able to run around and your budget will probably appreciate a lower-cost meal of sandwiches you can pack in a cooler before you leave.

* Historical attractions – Look for unusual sites that might be on your travel path. Local landmarks, smaller museums and other places of interest can make great, low-cost stops.

* Restaurants with playgrounds – If worse comes to worse, give in to the kids and stop at a fast-food place that happens to have a playground. For example, McDonald’s Restaurant Locator also shows which locations have playgrounds.

Breaking up a trip with little side adventures along the way can make a family vacation a whole lot more enjoyable for everyone. Even 30-minute stops kids can look forward to can make all the difference on the road.

So, what’s a time-pressed parent to do when getting to a trip destination on time matters, but so does nutrition?

There are plenty of things moms and dads can do to make sure kids eat better on a family road trip. Most won’t even take much more time than patronizing a drive through. Here are some helpful tips to keep sugary, salty and fatty foods out of the road trip diet (for the most part).

* Bring your own snacks – Grab a grocery store bag and fill it with crackers, fresh fruit, pretzels and other more healthful snack options. These items can tackle cravings for sweet, salty and even crunchy foods without breaking the laws of good nutrition by too much.

* Plan for healthier meals – Instead of grabbing breakfast on the road after heading out, eat at home and reserve less healthy meals for later in the trip. If a road trip will be an extended one, break up a day of travel with a stop at a restaurant that has healthier choices on the menu.

* Use drive-through common sense – Kids love fast-food and you probably won’t be able to avoid it completely on the road. Encourage healthier choices as a compromise. Get fruit slices or yogurt as a side instead of fries. Suggest milk instead of soda for the drink.

Half the fun of a road trip is eating all the forbidden foods. Unfortunately, too much of a not-so-good thing can leave you and your kids feeling out of sorts. Fight back with the right strategic moves for a smoother ride.

If you’re looking for a great way to keep them occupied and enjoying themselves, help may be closer than you think. Stop by your local library and hunt up some good books for reading out loud. A good story can occupy the minds of everyone in the car and really make the miles seem like they’re flying by. Plus, if the children are old enough to read, everyone can take turns with the storytelling.

To make sure you’re getting the right books for the road, consider following these tips:

Get a reading list from your child’s teacher – Pick a book off the school’s recommended reading list to ensure age and level appropriateness. Many of today’s children’s books have stories that are engaging enough to capture an adult’s attention.

Pick a favorite from your childhood – Whether it’s “Charlotte’s Web,” “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” or something else, if the memory of a book persists from your childhood, chance are the story is worth sharing.

Ask a children’s librarian – Public libraries have librarians on hand that can and would love to help you pick out some books for your trip. Tell the librarian the ages of your children and their interests and chances are some great title suggestions will follow.

To make sure your child fares well, you will have to do some advance planning for homework and other assignments. Make sure to:

• Contact teachers early – Let your child’s teachers know early that a trip is coming up and when your child will be absent from school as a result. Teachers can and sometimes will help by giving children assignments in advance so they won’t have to work on the road.

• Create a schedule – If your child will have to do homework during the trip, break up assignments so they can get them done without having to miss out on family fun. If possible, encourage your child to work on assignments during the trip to and from the vacation destination. Create a realistic schedule though so any assignments that have to be done during the trip get completed without spoiling all the fun.

• Make sure your child is prepared – Beyond bringing the backpack and books, create a “homework bag” for your child. Fill it with the writing tools, paper and even a portable desk your child might need to get the work done. A few treats for jobs well done wouldn’t hurt either.

Taking your child out of school for a family vacation doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Just plan ahead and do your part to keep your child on track.

While it would be nice to think a safe, comfortable hotel is waiting on every exit, this is not always the case. You can never really tell for sure if a special event or other occurrence will make finding vacant rooms at the end of a day’s drive difficult.

To avoid trouble on the road, consider doing these things before hand to find comfortable, affordable hotels for overnight stays during a trip:

• Research the road map and pick daily destinations – It’s a good idea to map out the entire trip from beginning to end before leaving anyway. As you do this, just pick stops along the way that make sense for overnight stays. With children along, you will probably want a hotel picked out about every 8 to 12 hours, depending on their ages.

• Select hotels in the targeted “layover” destinations – Once you know where to stop, it’s much easier to pick some hotels to suit. Do take the time to research venues for their pricing, availability and accommodations. It’s not even a bad idea to check travel sites about a particular hotel’s comfort level, cleanliness and security.

• Book rooms for the nights in question – After hotels are picked for the layover spot or spots, go ahead and secure the rooms in advance. This just gives you the added assurances that you’ll have a place to stay at the end of a day’s drive.

It’s fun to plan out activities and accommodations for a vacation destination. Don’t overlook the importance of planning for the road, too. Having a place to hang your hat and tuck your little ones in after a day on the road can be Just as important.

One of the best ways to prepare the kids for a second day on the road is to make sure they get plenty of rest the night before. If you stop early enough on the first evening, give the children a chance to stretch their legs, play, eat and get plenty of rest.

The next morning, get them up, ready and excited for another day on the road by fueling them with a good breakfast. A good stretch and some play time can also be helpful for getting them going for the ride ahead.

Once you’re on the road, consider these things for helping pass the time:

• Watch movies – If you have a portable DVD player along for the ride, plan a special “double feature” for day two. Unwrap a few new movies the kids have been asking to see and you’ll have their attention for several hours for sure.

• Plan a special stop – A fun, mid-day stop is a great way to break up the ride. Pick a park, an unusual tourist attraction or some other place where the kids can get out and burn off a little energy.

Family road trips are fun, but the novelty can wear off fast. Plan some “special events” to make day two go smoothly and you’ll thank yourself later.

Taking weekend trips closer to home can make sense for a number of reasons. Weekend mini-vacations for families with younger children can be especially beneficial because they:

• Give parents a way to break children into car trips – If smaller children have never been far away from home, a long family road trip can be a nightmare in the making. Shorter, weekend trips get them used to being in the car for longer stretches and provide faster relief from travel for everyone.

• Enable parents to rehearse for longer trips – Going on a huge family vacation for the first time with little ones in tow can cause a lot of stress for mom and dad. Remembering everything that needs to be packed, coming up with ways to occupy the kids in the car and simply getting to the destination with sanity intact can be daunting. Easing into the travel routine with a trip close to home can provide a great trial run and also give parents the confidence they need to lengthen the next trip.

• Can be a lot of fun – There are generally fantastic travel destinations rather close to home. These trips can save parents a lot of money and still offer a lot of adventure for a few days.

Keeping a budget in check and still having fun time with the family can be tough. Shorter vacations can serve everyone well and lay the foundation for longer, more elaborate road trip vacations down the road.

Scrapbooking is a fantastic craft activity to introduce during a road trip for a few reasons. This type of project can keep school-aged children busy by:

• Occupying them during the drive – While they might not be able to cut things out during transit, kids can still draw on pages, write captions for photos and even brainstorm how to lay things out once a stop is made.

• Putting their imaginations to work – A scrapbook can contain all types of mementoes. Children can take pictures at stops to remember where they’ve been. They can also collect post cards, printed napkins, ticket stubs and other items to place in their books. This can keep them busy and having fun throughout a trip, even during rest stops on the road.

• Giving them something to do in the hotel room – Scrapbooks are a great wind down activity at the end of a day of travel or other vacation adventure. Give them all the supplies for use in the hotel room such as embellishments, scissors and glue. Set them down at a table and watch them create.

A scrapbook project can keep the kids busy in the car, at stops and throughout a vacation. Plus, it will give them something very special to take home with them.

However, studies show that when children are exposed to different cultures, languages, food, and other things that go hand in hand with exploring foreign lands, those children might grow into adults that are more accepting of differences in people and tolerant of other cultures and belief systems. Traveling with your children to faraway places can be done and can ultimately be a positive thing in their lives and in yours.

Here are some helpful tips to make your next international trip much easier:

• Bring toys and games that your child has never seen before. Make the journey or the plane ride to a foreign location interesting by entertaining them with toys or games about the place that you will be visiting.
• Bring a DVD player and a wide selection of new movies. If you don’t want to buy a bunch of DVD’s go to your local library and check some out for the extent of your vacation.
• Make sure you avoid packing toys like Play-doh, you might not think it a big deal, but it will not pass airport security and you may be risking a meltdown if your little one sees a toy being thrown away or confiscated.
• Make sure you have a pillow and blanket to get them comfortable in their airplane seat. Chances are, if your flight is long, they are at some point going to doze off. Make sure they sleep as long as possible, as comfortable as possible.
• Bring ear plugs or something for them to chew on if they have issues with cabin pressure and ear popping.