6 Helpful Carpool Tips for Parents

6 helpful carpool tips for parents.

Photo by Jim Strasma on Unsplash

Carpooling is a serious matter. You’re holding the lives of other children in your hands, or you’re entrusting someone else to drive your children around. However, carpools have several advantages, and if you can arrange to carpool, it’s well worth it for the environment and for convenience purposes. Because organization and preparation are critical when loading a vehicle with children, you need to view the five ideas below to help you be an excellent and successful carpool parent.

Create a Google Form to determine interest

Google forms are a great and easy way to determine potential participants for carpooling. Set up a Google form and email it to parents who may be interested in a carpooling system. If a parent opts their children in the carpool system, consider the information you’ll need to collect on the form: an address, the parent’s name, the child’s name, contact information, and maybe even food allergies in case you want to provide snacks for kids in the car. Once you have this information, you can consolidate it all in an Excel sheet to make sure it’s secure and accessible to you.

Set up a carpool schedule

It is imperative to set up a carpool schedule. If other parents want to be drivers in the carpool, you need to work with them to come up with a practical schedule. Prioritize punctuality and make sure that your child is familiar, at all times, with the carpool vehicles, as well as with the carpool schedule. Teach your children the importance of not getting into cars with strangers or parents whom they’ve never seen or met before. Utilize a bulletin board or a magnetic calendar on the refrigerator so that your child knows who will be dropping them off and picking them up at all times.

Enforce car safety

Before driving to your destination, ensure that every child in the car is secure and has their seatbelts buckled. Also, make sure everyone has enough comfortable space in the car. It is imperative to have the best vehicle for carpooling, such as a new BMW x3 for sale in Springfield, NJ. 

Use the carpool driving time to teach your passengers about road safety. Teach them how traffic lights work by explaining that green means “go,” yellow means “slow down,” and red means “stop.” Draw attention to various road signs and explain the importance of following the speed limit.

Have some snacks

When kids are getting picked up from school or being dropped off at sports events, they may be hungry. Therefore, you may want to have some snacks in the car for them.

To keep your car clean and free from odors, be mindful when choosing snacks. Things like fruit bars, applesauce pouches, and string cheese are good snacks to have, as they can be filling and won’t create a mess in your car. Have a car trash bag for easy disposal of wrappers and trash. 

Play some music

Carpools should be fun! Turn on the radio and play some music that the kids will love. You may even want to allow the kids to make their own playlists and take turns playing them in the car. Doing this makes the ride more enjoyable, and it will give the kids a chance to express themselves through their music preferences and share their interests with other kids.

Talk to your passengers

Ask your passengers about their days at school and inquire about various details of their day. Ask them if they learned anything interesting at school or ask how they performed on their tests. Your intention should not be to pry, but it should be to simply show a child that you care about their day. Having an open conversation like this may allow a child to open up about any problems or struggles that they may be having at school, such as being a victim of bullying or struggling to keep up in class. Information like this can be passed on to the child’s parent so that any issue can be resolved in a proper and swift manner.

Conclusion

Carpooling is a convenient system to employ, but it requires much organization and structure. Consider the above tips to make your carpool system successful and fun.