This Friday I will be leaving with my two boys for an 8 hour drive to a family reunion. They are 2 and 4. The older boy is a pretty good kid, and I think he’ll be pretty content with his books and gameboy. The 2 year old though–well–we call him “ornery” when we’re trying to be charitable. We’ll be leaving in the evening, so it’s my hope that they will sleep for a good part of the way, but of course I can’t count on that. I’ve never taken them more than a 1/2 hour from home and I’m starting to worry that I’m a bit of a twit for ever thinking that this was a good idea.
So please, please, *please * give me tips, hints, advice, HELP, about what I can expect and how to keep them from driving me crazy the whole way.
Last 3 years we’ve taken week long driving vacations.
1st one: Hersey Park & West Virginia (my in-laws) daughter was 6 and son was 3. He is definitely a handful. We brought lots of craft stuff, especially crayons and pipe cleaners. A Thomas & Friends Color Forms kept him entertained for hours. We packed lots of fruit and granola bars. We let them bring lots of toys. Activities are the key.
The Sleep on the 9 hour trip home worked remarkably well.
Last 2 years same idea.
Colorforms–beautiful! Never would have thought of those but I bet the little one would love them. They’re going on “The List”.
We have girls 6 & 5, and have done driving trips/vacations since they were born. For long distance driving, my wife makes sure to pack lots of juice and snacks/munchies like chips, rits-bits, popcorn (yeah, the car looks a mess), and also books, activities, and crayons; particularly are books that haven’t been read before - my wife keeps a stash of new ones just for this purpose. We’ll only drive max a couple of hours at one shot, and then it’s a lunch (McD’s with play areas are great to burn off some energy) or something. The trump card is one of those inexpensive DVD players - it’s not the way I travelled when I was a kid and I’m not real keen on vegging out to movies in the car, but it works when we need to get somewhere. Hope this helps.
Will you be the only adult in the car? (That would make it rough.)
Treat it as an adventure, not just “getting in the car and going.” Point out landmarks, odd barns, rivers, etc. (If you’re near larger river, look for boats.)
Pick up a book of “travel games” if you don’t recall any from your childhood, (“I spy,” “Riddle-Ree,” and other games that require some attention, but no in-car props.) The two-year old is, unfortunately, too short and two young to play license plate or car model and car color finding games, but if this trip does not make you swear off, forever, they will be good for a while in the future.
I would suggest never bypassing a rest stop (or never bypassing two in a row) until they have fallen asleep. It will add time to the trip, but it gives them a chance to stretch. Most rest stops on the freeways are about 40 minutes to an hour apart. Rest stops on lesser highways are more problematic, but you can usually stop at the city or village parks for a few minutes as you’re driving through settled country.
Lots of snacks: carrot sticks and celery or cheese, rather than chocolate bars and chips, but something that will give them something to gnaw on besides your nerves. (When they are a bit older, you can bring the fixings for cheese and crackers and let them assemble their own (realizing that you will need to do some serious vacuuming at the end of the trip).)
Does your two-year-old like to listen to music? A CD player with earphones can come in handy for that. Many of them now come with power cords that will play off the cigarette lighter and the purchase of a splitter (allowing three cords to be plugged into the lighter outlet) is fairly cheap. Remove the batteries from the player and use your access to the power as a carrot and stick for having access to the music.
I would never suggest this for older kids, whom I want to watch the scenery, but there are some relatively cheap portable TVs with DVD players, now. I don’t want my kids watching animated pap while we tour Yellowstone Park, but having a pacifier for an overnight drive does not bother me nearly as much.
One (possibly two) favorite toy(s), appropriate for size and sharp objects, is a must. Set up a special place for them to store it (a net or bag hung from the seat ahead of them) and make it a rule that they will put it back or it goes in the trunk until the next stop. (And if it becomes a weapon it goes in the trunk until the end of the drive.) A good-sized pillow. Perhaps a blanket. The pillow and folded blanket become a separating table alongside the kid(s) when not sleeping. (You can let him bring his favorite “100 combat troops!” as long as you and he realize that he will only come home with 92 of them and that they will show up in odd places in the car for months. I generally tried to discourage those or my daughter’s bead stringing sets.)
(I like the colorforms idea, but remember that it will also come home missing pieces. )
I’m sure you realize this, already, but for the readers at home: all intervention must be early. A kid who is getting ready to have a problem must be addressed as soon as possible. Like taking analgesics for pain, a small dose at the first sign works much better than a triple dose once the pain has broken out.
With the van, I found that staggering the kids goes a long way toward peace in the car. Kids sitting next to each other must touch each other. (It is in their rulebook.) Kids in separate seats, where they cannot even see each other easily, can get along more easily. Putting the 2-year-old behind the driver and the 4-year-old behind the passenger in the third seat allows access to the younger kid for spills and retrieving dropped toys while the older child gets some privacy.
This does mean that you need to stop at snack time to reach the kid in the back. (I’m not a fan of the passener unbuckling and climbing over seats at 70 mph.) There are trrade-offs everywhere.
I hate to admit this but on long trips my parents would make up silly competitions between for us kids.
The one that worked too well was the “who can be quiet the longest game” the winner would get a quarter. We were a very competitive bunch it worked until my brother and I started to try and make the other make noises. Especially bad if a punch buggy drove by. :smack:
The punch buggie game was eventually banned… Road trips were never the same
Forget Colorforms. You need chloroform.
Seriously, he key is novelty. Bring new toys, books and music. Dole them out periodically, not all at once. Don’t frontload the drive with too much fun; it will make the back half miserable. Pace yourself, and allow mild bouts of boredom.
Have fun…
I forgot, the other form of entertainment was Daddy (me) being requested to make up stories about either their stuff Animals in a magic land or our Kitty Cats having adventures.
Duct tape. At 12 and 15, I still use it. 
Duct tape, eh? ::adds to list::
I won’t be the only adult, thankfully, as my sister is going with us. The DVD player would be a huge help, but it’s not in my budget right now so that’s out. We’ll be in a mid-size car, so they’ll be stuck next to each other as well. Fortunately, they’re not too bad yet with the “not touching you” crap my sisters and I used to pull incessantly (sorry Dad!). But road games are definitely doable, and snacks are a necessity.
I like the idea of the individual CD players–I have a couple already so it wouldn’t be a big expense to get the splitter. The trick would be to keep the 2 year old from tossing it out the window, to meet up somewhere with his etch-a-sketch, his shoe, and numerous bouncy balls that have received similar treatment. I’m hoping the rear windows will have parental locks (we’re renting a car) to avoid that, so we’ll see.
Check on the story time as well–I actually considered looking into a Book on Tape we might all be able to tolerate. Any suggestions?
or, you could re-order the letters in “Colorforms” and get “Cloroform”, another thing that would make the trip easier 
(kidding)
…in all honesty, i read “Colorforms” as Cloroform" at first glance, you have to admit it would make travel with the “ornery” one more bearable…
err, make that “Chloroform” not cloroform, maybe me should stop sniffing processor heat transfer compound instead, but me like it, it good…
Another couple of things that reading tomndebb’s and jrfranchi’s posts reminded me of:
[ul]we have a leapster video-game that has educational games that the kids enjoy, and it can be played with headphones.[/ul]
[ul]we’ve (my wife) started reading Harry Potter on drives.[/ul]
[ul]I can tell stories, although that’s harder on me - the older daughter likes myths/legends and the younger daughter likes Disney stories.[/ul]
[ul]they are usually good for a couple of hours before they start getting antsy, and lots of times they just like to sit and look at the scenery or read quietly.[/ul]
Good luck with your trip.
belladonna wrote:
a Book on Tape we might all be able to tolerate. Any suggestions?
It may not work for this trip (lead-time), but Scholastic sells (through class order forms) simple books that come with a companion CD - our younger daughter, who sometimes has a difficult temperment (like your 2 year old boy?) loves these - she’ll have a favorite on each trip and we’ll wear the CD out from replaying it. So, we’ve found that Books on Tape are OK, but at the younger ages they definitely like having pictures to look at as well.
My experience was that Books on tape don’t hold kids attention, I think its the spoiled by TV factor.
Adults reading aloud or spinning tales out until hoarse worked much better.
Duly noted, thanks guys.
Great suggestions above. I’ve only got one more for you - a few plastic bags. Like grocery store bags.
I found out the hard way on one particular trip that my youngest son gets car sick. Now (he’s 14 and still gets sick), if we ever expect to be in the car longer than 30 minutes, I make sure to grab a few bags just in case.
We just got back from a hugely long road trip with our 2 year old. Among other things, we brought a Megasketch (basically the same as an etch-a-sketch). It provided hours of entertainment. We were also travelling with four adults and him (in one car!) and it worked out pretty well that there was an adult sitting next to him who didn’t mind doing stuff like picking up dropped drinks and blankies.
they’re also helpful if the child wants to play “Johnny Spaceman, Space Adventurer”, barring that, you could always bring along the “Big Bag O’ Glass”, it teaches them about prisms, and light refraction, fun and educational…
(yes, i’m kidding… Johnny Spaceman is not a real spaceman…)