Bad behaviour in the car

[mamaqueen]

Please help - my 23 month old son is not behaving in the car - he is fine in the morning going to nursery but on the way home he is whinging and crying. I give him juice and a biscuit but when the biscuit is finished it starts again. He is in the passengers seat of the car so he can see everything that is going on, but he is managing to get the arm belts off the car seat and stretching over to me. I give him his dummy and he throws it away and then cries and throws his book away. I'm at the end of my tether and my driving is really bad
Can anyone give me some advice - apart from buying another car

[WanderingTrolley]

Put him in the back seat pronto - he might not have such a good view, but he'll be safer.

Tighten the straps so he can't get out of them or find some way of keeping him in them.

Put the radio on and sing loudly.
Put the dummy on a strap and attach it to him so if he flings it he can retrieve it.

What time do you collect him - is he tired?

[Paddlechick666]

sing sing sing!

my dd is in the passenger seat too and can be very clingy/whiney/teary on our way home from CM or pre-school.

she's just pretty tired but a song can always distract her.

i am actually considering moving her into the back because i think sometimes when she's tired she actually gets a bit anxious about the speed of the car and traffic and so on.

i sometimes hold her hand and we just chat which also calms her down.

[hopefully]

I have absolutely no advice, but just read your post title as 'bad behaviour in the cat' and was keen to see what advice you'd get for your misbehaving feline!

[eidsvold]

put him in the back - safest place for him - to bad if he can't see what is going on. He will also not be distracting you by having you give him things and stretching over to you. He is being dangerous and could end in an accident.

Tighten straps as tight as possible. We had dd1 and 2 go through a spat of this.

Play some of his music when in the car and sing along to it. Dds used to love this too especially if I did it in a silly voice.

he is no doubt tired and with less distraction of cars and a view he may settle down.

[NicMac]

Stop the car. Pull over and say you are not going anywhere until he sits correctly as it is very dangerous and the police will stop you. This worked for my two in anycase. Good luck

[barking]

There is something called a 'snug fit' I bought from the great little trading company that you can use to keep the arm straps in place, in the meantime you could use a muslin square of similar to tie the straps across - this isn't ideal as in the event of a crash the emergency services would need to get a child out of the car as quickly as possible - but the danger may be greater at the moment if his straps aren't secure.

another thought is to check that the head rest isn't too low as that could be leaving the straps over his shoulders too low and enabling him to wriggle out of them.