The podcast for every parent about to lose their mind on a road trip.

‘Tis the season for road trips.

And you, ever the optimist, might have a romanticised view of them. After all, it’s QUALITY time with the fam! You can play 20 questions and eye-spy. You can take your time, stop in a quaint bakery in a small town and have a steak and mushroom pie that city people only dream of.

Except when you consider you are dealing with tired parents desperate to enjoy their time off work, possibly multiple siblings who simultaneously love each other and hate each other with furious intensity, AND a car full of people trapped in a small space with the dwindling attention spans of a social media/internet diet, it can lead to a couple of questions.

Like:

What were we thinking?

and

WHAT WERE WE THINKING?

Thank goodness for This Glorious Mess.

Because between them, Andrew Daddo and Holly Wainwright know your pain.

So they made a road trip podcast that will buy your family 34 minutes and 40 seconds of not hating each other.

Listen here: 

Because as much as it can be long, hard, hot, and boring, road trips can be transformed into part of the fun of the holidays.

You can still cling on to that feeling of fun, family, love and laughter.

Or, if you want to prep yourself, here are four amazing road trip activities that will keep adults and children alike occupied, and less likely to ask annoying questions like, "Are we there yet?" or "How much longer?" or "Is there anything else to eat?".

1. Would you rather?

This is a brilliant road trip game involving the posing of difficult questions which family members then have to try and answer. It's not meant to start arguments, it's just meant to start conversations in which you can explain your preference. Some of the questions Andrew and Holly came up with include

Would you rather...feet for hands or hands for feet?

Would you rather...have hair on the palm of your hands, or no hair anywhere?

Would you rather...give up coffee forever, or give up chocolate forever?

Would you rather...have 100 dogs or 100 cats?

The questions you can think of are endless.

2. Music Quiz

From The Wiggles to Bieber to songs used in commercials, Music Quiz games are so much fun for families because they appeal to people of all ages. You can use the Music Quiz to hand out treats to the kids when it's time for a treat. That way instead of keeping score, everyone who gets one right gets a prize.

All you need to do to play this game is to load up a lots of songs on your device and play the first couple of seconds. There are also music quiz apps that do all the work for you such as Music Quiz, Guess the Song and Song Pop.

3. Have you been paying attention?

This game will test your knowledge of 2016. Kids like to know what is going on in the world. This is one of the most education of all the games. The questions can be simple, difficult and designed for all ages.

Some of Andrew's and Holly's suggestions include:

Who was elected president of America?

Name the new Harry Potter book and movie?

You can make it more fun by downloading a "ding" and "buzz" sound effect.

And questions that would work in my family:

Who won the NRL Grand Final?

Where were the Olympics held this year?

4. Spotto

The GAME OF THE YEAR amongst school-aged children has been Spotto and I love how each family has evolved the game into their own version of it. The basic rule is that each member of the car tries to spot green and yellow cars. Whomever says, "Spotto!" first when they see a green car earns one point. Whomever yells out, "Snotto!" when they see a yellow car earns two points.

We added, "Purplo!" for purple cars which are valued at four points and, "Pinko!" for pink cars valued at six points.

Once the game of Spotto became so heated in my car with Philip, 12 and I both tied for first place that we drove around until one of us managed to break the tie, which I'm happy to say was ME, for once.

Listen to the full episode of This Glorious Mess road trip special.

To subscribe to This Glorious Mess in iTunes go to apple.co/mamamia where you'll find all of our shows in one place and any books written by the many Mamamia guests.

Here are 11 of the best road trip movies for you and your family to watch in preparation for your own family holiday road trip.