To ask if any of you have lived through one of my worst nightmares?

[steben]

In a few weeks a very close family friend is having a surprise 60th about 4 hours drive away. To be honest I was dreading the drive anyway but DH was meant to be coming - therefore driving - anyway he now has to go away with work. Anyway to cut a major long rambly post short - one if my biggest fears when motorway driving with DCs is getting stuck in non moving motorway traffic. DCs are 6 months and 3 - what do people do if they get stuck with little kids etc... Feeding etc.... Have any of you ever got stick on your own? What did you do?

Reading this has given me flashbacks of endless verses of The Wheels on the Bus etc.

?oh God, more roadworks! Okay, what else does Old MacDonald have on his bloody farm??

pack sandwiches, download games onto your phone/tablet if you can.

lots of songs, hope they sleep, try to take routes that aren't known trouble spots, listen to travel reports on the radio.

We got stuck when DD was a baby, the police sorted it out. Other people who couldn't be helped were stuck for 5 hours.

Have lots and lots of crappy food to throw at them.

14.5 hours in -10 temps on the M8 motorway in 2010. We had a 7 year old, a 4 year old and an 11 month old.

Fortunately as we were on our way to Center Parcs we had books and DVD player etc. We watched a huge amount of Peppa Pig.

Nothing was moving, no cars/police etc could have got through and the Scottish Roads Minister lost his job because of it.

public transport?

It will be fine OP :)
My family live 2.5 hours away, and we have 5 DD's between the ages of 3 and 6 - I've done the journey hundreds of times.
One of the worst was when I was on my own - bad traffic so after about 2 hours we were half way there. Going along a B road and all the traffic was finally going at about 15mph. Que 18MO triplets start projectile vomiting in the back. There was literally no where to pull over for miles so had to keep driving. Other 2 DD's were screaming because of the sick, DTrips were crying.. etc etc.
30 mins later, lots of wet wipes and we were back on the road. Whatever happens - just remember that nothing is going to happen. Even if they get bored and start crying - nothing awful is going to happen.
I would definitely recommend going in the evening - get them bathed, into PJ's, snuggled up with blankets - your 11MO will definitely sleep. And hopefully your 6YO would to (my 6YO will, but 5YO won't - I suppose it depends on the child?) but even so, with quiet music on, sibling asleep, and dark outside, 6YO is likely to sit quietly and eventually drop off.
We've had some horrendous journeys, but I can laugh about them now - and it will give you the confidence to do it again :) You'll do it once and realise that it's fine!

I think these stories are admirable and also confirm my worst fears!

Loads of times, I used to travel from Manchester through Birmingham and on every Friday evening for weeks. Traffic was stagnant on many occasions.
Used to have song tapes, pack a mini picnic for them to help themselves to, lots of water, extra fleece blanket in case of needing to snuggle.

FIVE hours...

He wee'd himself, I nearly wee'd myself... he cried LOUDLY then we got moving and he undid his seatbelt just as I hit 70mph

Other than that piece of cake