Road Trip!

Most of our family travel now involves going in the car somewhere else in the state rather than flying to some exciting new country.  While car travel has never been my favorite, I have learned a few things about travelling in the car with young children.  We keep our car travel under 5 hours so I don’t have much to say about multi-day cross-country trips.  We aren’t cool-modern-day-parents with a roomy minivan and DVD player.  We are also unable to use any kind of portable entertainment device for shared viewing since Honeybun is forward facing and Sugarplum is still rear-facing.  I also do not bring noise making (generally marketed at “learning”) toys because one noise in addition to my children’s constant questioning is more than enough, adding additional noises might just send me to the loony bin!  I also avoid toys that have lots of parts.  Airplanes are nice for multi-part toys because they have a tray they can play on and if they drop something on the floor I can unbuckle and get it.  In the car pieces go everywhere, I can’t reach them while moving and mass chaos ensues.

For these reasons I’ve had to come up with my own sanity saving tips:

1)       I always try to plan our time in the car to coincide with their normal napping time.  This does not always result in them sleeping peacefully during the drive, but it has never made the ride more difficult.

2)       Be sure to bring any and all comfort items.  My girls each have a special loving thing (Honeybun it’s a receiving blanket and Sugarplum it’s a small headed blanket thing) and I also bring a few stuffed animals as well as sunglasses (Sugarplum not stand the sun in her eyes!).

3)       I constantly peruse the cheap (under $1) toys when shopping at places like Target, Joann or Walmart and keep a stash which I can surprise them with once on the road (I do this for airplane rides too).

4)       Books.  Lots of them.  I have a library of holiday books that I rotate throughout the year and usually bring these on the road with us since they are usually less familiar than the ones we have out all the time.

5)       I also bring books on Tape.  When the girls get tired of the radio, it gives them something to think about and they can’t argue while listening.

6)       Snacks are my savior.  I hold off on snacks until we are all going to lose our minds but having something that requires a lot of chewing (fruit snacks, fresh snap peas, etc.) keeps them happier and quieter longer.  We also have water available at all times within reach for them.