Surviving a Long Car Trip with 2 Toddlers

This past year the kids and I have been doing a lot of travel back and forth from New York to Maryland. I have had singing, laughing, crying, screaming, and sometime puke happen on my rides. I have learned a few things to make the ride easier and much less stressful.

1. Leave about 30 minutes to an hour before nap time. This way the kids have awake time broken into two parts and the ride seems shorter to them.
2. Have them finish eating 30 minutes before you get into the car. Don’t feed them anything heavy, greasy, or sweet. Otherwise you maybe stopping to clean up throw up.
3. Have a bag full of toys and only hand them one at a time when they seem to get a little bored or fussy. Otherwise just let them enjoy looking out the window.
4. NO DVDs or books if your child gets a little car sick.
5. Have bland but easy finger food snacks on hand. Also water, no milk to drink.
6. Singing kid songs can help pass the time for the kids.
7. I prefer to drive straight through if possible. Our long car rides are about 6 hours so I try not to drink anything to make me have to go to the bathroom. I usually drive by myself and with one that does walk yet a pit stop can take a lot longer than a few minutes. The kids also seem to have a harder time getting back in the car seat instead of just muscling through it.
8. Remember to breath when all seems to head south.

I hope these tips are helpful and you have a wonderful trip.

30 Jun This entry was published on June 30, 2014 at 11:05 am. It’s filed under Travel with Kids and tagged tips for traveling, travel with kids. car. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.