Traveling with kids: The roadside reality

We set out from Atlanta just after 7:30 a.m., heading to Santa Rosa Beach with an infant and two elementary-aged kids. The plan was to take the scenic route through Eufaula, beat the lunch crowd, and get to our vacation rental right on time to check in. When you’re traveling with a baby, thinking ahead is a must.

By my math, our departure time would put us in Eufaula around 11:15 a.m.—perfect timing. It’s a random week in September, after all. What could go wrong?

Turns out, plenty.

Lunch on the road with kids

Four metro Atlanta counties were on fall break that week, which meant the highways and restaurants were overflowing with families just like us. When we pulled into Chick-fil-A at 11:10 a.m., the dining room was packed—think Taylor Swift concert, not small-town lunch rush. It was a 45-minute wait just to order food. Meanwhile, my 6- and 8-year-old desperately needed the bathroom, and the line for the women’s room was 15 people deep. I’m sweaty, panicking, and still need to feed the baby.

We bailed. I told my husband we had to find another option, fast. Across the street, Burger King came to the rescue with an indoor playground and mercifully short bathroom lines. Crisis averted—sort of.

Because now I was sitting in the back seat of the car, engine running, trying to pump milk for the baby while worrying about whether my husband could juggle all three kids at once. The 4-month-old was edging toward full meltdown mode, and I was trapped in that all-too-familiar tension between meeting everyone’s needs and never quite getting to meet my own.

Pumping in the backseat

And in that moment, I couldn’t help but wonder: why doesn’t anyone think about nursing mothers when designing roadside stops? It’s as if we don’t exist. Babies don’t just drop out of the sky—they come with messy, urgent, unavoidable needs. Anyone who’s traveled with an infant knows the stress. But once people move past that stage of life, it seems the memory disappears—and so do the solutions.