Solo driving with small DC?

[FranklinTheCat]

Just finished a longish (2.5 hours) drive with DS (3). He was mostly really good in the car but one thing which has proved difficult on both legs of the journey is him not being able to reach things.

He has a seat tidy but can't reach it yet so I tend to put stuff around him in his car seat and on the seat next to him. But we really struggled today with stuff like him not being able to reach something he wanted, or dropping something on the floor by accident. And God forbid when the tablet wouldn't play Hey Duggee...

How do other people manage solo driving with small kids? Is there some kind of tray table or similar that we should have, or is it just a question of grinning and bearing it, and waiting for his arms to grow longer?!

I wouldn't do a drive that long with my 3 year old as all hell would break loose, no advice sorry!

We broke the journey twice on the way up but still had the same problem! He slept today so decided to just push on. He was really good but when tired, he just starts howling if something doesn't go his way. Had to pull into a parking layby on the A1 today to retrieve his milk that he'd dropped . We're fairly new to long drives and normally have DP with us to act as Car Minion and entertainer but not today.

What stuff does he have?

I do a drive like that with my dc fairly regularly & have done since they were tiny (they’re 6 & 4 now). They have water bottles in the middle which they can reach but no other stuff or tablets. CBeebies radio is pretty good to keep them occupied for a bit, or audio books. I know I’m lucky as they are very good travellers but I’d be wary of loads of stuff around them as in an accident all of those things become missiles...I saw some horrible thing about how much force ordinary things are equivalent to in a crash which made me wary of giving them things from early on so I suppose we never formed the habit.

The other thing we do if needing to do longer drives is try to travel in the evening where possible so they can sleep for some/most of the journey.

I have done journeys with our two, both with special needs on my own and quite hyper. I used to find having them strapped into one place was a bit of rest bit for me tbh! I have to say that this was before they had tablets but they did have dvds on the backs of the front seats. They never had lots of things to play with we just looked out the window or sang songs. So had no problems with things being out of reach.

Mine tends to fall asleep, mostly.
Not that I do journeys that long, but certainly if leaving early evening he would be asleep pretty soon.

When he's awake he listens to the music I put on and sometimes I hear him singing his own songs. Sometimes he asks me random things that I mostly don't know the answers to. I think he likes the thinking time of sitting in the car, looking out of the window etc. Not needed other stuff to occupy him since he was younger.

We attach toys to lanyards (old ones from my office!) which are then threaded onto the seatbelt. It means if our son drops a toy, he only has to pull on the lanyard to get it back!

Mary Poppins or other insanely long film on a tablet (with tablet holder strapped to headrest). Pre-opened snacks on the passenger seat that I can fling into back seat at strategic intervals (Peppa Pig breadsticks etc - stuff I know I can vacuum up again at some point. Rucksack of toys packed by them. Playing “you have to spot 5 red cars and 2 blue cars and a bus” type games.

Mine don’t sleep in the car, it’s v annoying, as is the dropping stuff and wailing for it. We try to go by train if possible because at least you’re moving while doing loo, food etc.

Other occasionally successful tactic is a National Trust property halfway - frantic running around the gardens for 45 minutes plus lunch is a lot better than motorway services.

Interesting - thanks for responses. He certainly spent most of today looking out of the window and chatting, when he wasn't asleep (which he was for an hour) or tablet-watching. I encourage him to look out for stuff (planes, wind turbines, etc) and we were counting petrol stations at one point...

In terms of stuff, that's a good point in terms of accidents, @Stylinit. He has his water bottle next to his seat and also a small rucksack with toys in but he showed no interest in toys either way so we won't bother with that next time. He also had the tablet and a sticker book.

The stuff that caused a problem today was him dropping his milk on the floor (which he had immediately upon waking, so was tired and tearful) and not being able to reach his sunglasses (which had been on his head so I don't know why they ended up in the middle!). Partly my fault for not putting both the sun shades on.

We made a day of the journey on the way up, with a stop after 45 mins at an attraction and a stop after another hour for lunch. I think he would have been ok today if DP had been with me to pass/pick up things as required but it was just the two of us. Just wondered if there were any obvious tricks I was missing!

@EggysMom, that is pure genius! I'm definitely going to try a similar trick with his bloody sunglasses next time.

@Phalarope, why didn't I think of pre-opened?! Had the bag of snacks on the passenger seat - cereal bars, crisps, etc, - though only needed to pass him a cereal bar today. Pre-opened would definitely have been a better idea.

Thanks for all suggestions - bar the genius lanyard idea, it seems there isn't an obvious trick I was missing. We normally would have broken the journey today but traffic was light and he wasn't bothered so decided to push on.

My kids never got a tablet in the car, just god awful story cds. All they’ve ever had in the back is there teddy, no bottles or snacks (choking hazard) Like a pp I’d seen car seat safety pages with adverts about how kids stuff = weight of a brick in the event of an accident, put the fear of god in me. They have regularly driven 2-4hr journeys since small, and are very good passengers.

Mine have magazines and the shite toys that come with them. They tended to sleep on realky long journeys when that age.

I regularly take mine on 3-5 hour car journeys on my own. They're 2 & 3 now.

They have a water bottle and a comforter/teddy but nothing else. If they drop anything it's tough luck! I explain to them I can't pick it up while driving and to wait until the next stop. They usually understand.

They're now at an age where we can listen to stories and chat. We did a game about going to the supermarket last week and tell incredibly shit "knock knock" jokes.

Yeah, I think some of it is about getting used to the car - we had the chat before setting off about how I wouldn't be able to pick things up or help him, but obviously in the moment it's difficult for him to remember that sometimes.

I drove 3 hours today with a 6yr old trying to look up songs on Spotify except he can't spell. That was really frustrating.

We used to have a cardboard box on the seat fastened on with the middle seatbelt and put things in there. They filled the box with things to play with before we left the house.

Oh God, @flitwit99, I feel your pain! Mine was trying to play stuff on the Kindle except I couldn't direct him to do it and couldn't see what was on the screen...he did master it in the end! Like the box idea for when arms are longer.