Planning holiday travel with your kids? This is when you can expect peak stress to hit and how you can mitigate it

Three and a half hours into holiday travel with their kids is when “peak stress” hits parents, according to new research.The survey of 2,000 parents with kids aged 5–12, who have traveled for the holidays with their child in the last year, looked at the highs (and lows) of traveling with little ones during the end of the year.Parents report being most stressed just over three and a half hours into their trip — but 12% said their stress peaks in the first hour.Where is this stress coming from? Parents said that keeping their kids entertained is the most demanding aspect of holiday vacation (64%). Following that, dealing with temper tantrums (46%), trying to find bathrooms (43%) and hearing “are we there yet?” from the backseat (40%) were all found to be the top stressors for parents.  In fact, 28% would rather listen to nothing but “Baby Shark” for the entire trip rather than deal with traveling with a screaming child.And 13% said getting a root canal sounds like a more pleasant experience. Commissioned by Welch’s Fruit Snacks ahead of their FruitSide Assistance campaign, and conducted by Talker Research, the survey revealed that despite the stress and difficulties, 93% of parents said traveling with their little ones is still completely worth it.And in good news, nearly nine in 10 parents feel much more prepared to travel with their children this year compared to years past. Planning ahead is key — the average parent has their travel itinerary completely set in stone over two months (2.3) before they hit the road.“During the busy upcoming travel season, when highways are jam packed, and cars are bumper to bumper, parents know delays, boredom and tired kids can turn holiday magic into a test of endurance,” said Jason Levine, Chief Marketing Officer at PIM Brands, the makers of Welch’s Fruit Snacks.

“We wanted to help these families by giving out kits including everything needed to handle kids’ on-road travel mishaps.”Eighty-thr...