Dear RoadTripMom: Back Seat Bickering

QUESTION: What's your favorite tactic for dealing with kids who start bickering in the back seat?

ANSWER:
Generally, the thing I recommend the most is to just change the activity. Make some suggestions to the kids from the ideas that you have hopefully prepared before the trip! More specifically though, my favorite tactic when nothing else seems to end the bickering is to put on some new music and start singing loudly! .....Very loudly!

The kids will either start singing along with me, or they will unite with each other to try to make the parents STOP singing! Either way, the bickering is over. It definitely helps to have a sense of humor about it. Sometimes I have even used it as a (humorous) consequence. For example, "You kids need to start another activity instead of bickering, or else I will be forced to start singing!" It works every time.