Tia Mowry Reveals Her Easy Hack To Make Driving With Kids A Little Less Stressful

Driving with kids is stressful. In between the crying and fighting, you’ve got endless questions, begging for snacks, and someone who forgot to go potty. Actress and mom-of-two Tia Mowry is familiar with the struggle. The Sister, Sister star stays plenty busy driving her kids — Cree, 10, and Cairo, 4, with husband Cory Hardrict — around all while navigating wild Los Angeles traffic. But she has a strategy when the kids get restless in the car.

“We love games like the license plate game, and I Spy, which even Cairo can play,” Mowry tells Romper. In case you were never subjected to long road trips as a kid, the license plate game is where you try to spot license plates from all 50 states, and I Spy is where others try to guess things you spot outside the car.

“But our most requested car game is Would You Rather,” Mowry adds. This one can be played anywhere and involves making someone choose between two hard-to-pick scenarios.

When nobody is feeling games, Mowry turns to music. “My kids and I love to sing in the car,” she shares, “and we’ve come up with a list of fun music we can all sing along to.” While Mowry didn’t reveal the playlist, we do know that Cairo likes dancing in her car seat to rap music.

Like most parents, Mowry says she spends “a lot of time in the car” with her kids. For her, safety is a priority and that’s one reason she partnered with Kelley Blue Book to share the Best Family Cars of 2022. Another way she focuses on safety is by ensuring her car is up to date with the latest technology. “I am constantly on the go and features like hands-free capabilities and driver-assist help to avoid accidents,” she says.

Mowry also revealed her tip for keeping the car clean that doesn’t involve a magic genie.

“Another hack I use is having designated car toys that live in a tidy basket,” she explains. Makes sense, as making sure your kids get every toy out of the car every day (along with their snacks, backpacks, water bottles) is exhausting. “Organization is key, as well all know how messy — sometimes embarrassingly messy — our cars can get with kids.” So true.

Mowry’s kids have a seven-year age gap, something she and Hardrict planned intentionally. “We felt like having two kids back-to-back was just too much,” Mowry told Romper in November 2019. “And not only that, I wanted to give my son as much attention as I possibly could.” But when they realized “a shrine started to happen” toward her son, they decided to have another baby.

Cairo is finally old enough to play with her big brother. “Now that Cairo knows how to swim, they’ve really been loving to swim and play together in the pool,” she tells Romper. “But something they actually always love doing together is cooking!” In fact, Mowry’s kids often show off their cooking skills on Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix on YouTube, which has 910,000 subscribers.

It’s no surprise that her kids get along great, as Tia and her twin sister, Tamera Mowry, have modeled a great relationship throughout the years. They are both great actresses, having starred together on Sister, Sister, Twitches, Twitches Too, and their reality show, Tia & Tamera, and they are both navigating motherhood with two kids. Tamera is married to Adam Housley and is mom to Aden, 9, and Ariah, 6. It’s not the only thing they have in common, though. They’re also both excellent kid-chauffeurs.

So, the ultimate question: who’s a better driver? “To be honest, we both are pretty great and safe drivers!” Mowry reveals. “It’s a twin thing.”