We'll be making a 9 hour car journey between Scotland and England TWICE next year (there and back), and I really need some tips on how to survive.
Firstly, yes we have to drive there (no plane or train for reasons too long and boring to get into), secondly - it could be at night, but ideally we'd drive during the day.
The main problem is that DS WILL NOT sleep or nap in a car or pram. He will only sleep in his bed with curtains closed. He currently has at least a 2-3 hour nap during the afternoon. We are reluctant to make the trip overnight as I'd rather we have him overtired from missing his day time nap than over tired from because it's 2am and he should have been asleep since 7pm.
We are arriving a few days early before the event we are attending so he'll have some time to recover from the journey before it.
We don't drive at all, and have no access at all to a car usually (a friend is driving us) so there is no way to practice this, or even get him used to napping in a car.
So basically it's me, my fiancé, DS, my friend and her other half in a car for 9 hours. My friend is more than happy to make multiple stops and breaks, and accepts that there will be a certain amount of whining...but that said she has no children and almost no experience with them and I have witnessed the look on her face when DS is being even slightly difficult and I have to admit I'm worried.
DS will be 2 in June and this trip is in August, so he'll be two years and two months old.
Any tips at all!??