Ok, so what are your tips for peaceful car journeys?

[essbee]

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Leave when they are due to nap.

travel overnight

dvd player (a godsend this year on our trip to Scotland)

light snacks and drinks and frequent stops

Medised?

That was a joke btw

2nd a DVD player. Do a party bag for each kid - get little cheapy things from Happars bizzare etc.

dd is going through a phase of being travel sick. Gingerbread men and lots of water, plus frequent stops.

I also have a supply of sick bags from aeroplanes; dd seems better able to deal with being sick if she has an element of control.

Avoid milk like the plague. I won't go into details

I thought medised was quite a good suggestion!

mazzystar - I was going to suggest Phenergan or Medised! However I tried Phenergan once and apparently it tastes foul - didn't work anyway

Game boy, leap pad or similar depending on age.
Story tapes (couldn't afford dvd but this helped on 8 hour drive through France)

M%S do good story CD with book to go with it.

dvd player

For a young child, trawl charity shops and get a big old lady's style handbag. Fill it with other charity shop finds like a glasses case with pair glasses in, an old 35 mm camera (found one for 50p), a purse, notebook, pens, old make up jars and bottles, pack of tissues, fold up hair brush, compact mirror, bunch of keys etc etc etc

All the junk you would normally find in a handbag plus some extra little surprises such as small picture book, pocket sized photo album with pictures of your friends and family, mini packs raisins, small tins and boxes with little surprises in.

Load it all up then casually give it to child in the back seat. "Oh just hold my hand bag for me would you?"

Watch surreptitiously in rear view mirror as they unpack and mess about with it all for about 2 hours. Ours cost about £10 to put together and is one of the best 'toys' I have ever got for ds. Only bring it out on long car journeys, or the magic is lost!

Haven't done this but thought about it (does that count?): tape bedtime story sessions so a) they get to hear favourite stories and b) also get to hear themselves interupting, sorry, contributing to the story. This only works if you have an olde fashioned tape player in the car.

F&Z I did that for real once with DS when stuck in a monstrous traffic jam just before tea time.

OK so he may have trashed a lipstick or something but he was happy for ages.

My neice has one of those lap tray things with compartments down the side for pencils & has often spent a 2 hour journey colouring etc.

It really works, doesn't it, Frayed Knot? It's like an in car version of the Treasure Basket for babies. Children love to play with real things

My kids love this, not sure it others will.
Takes 5 mins to set up but you should get at least 30-45 mins of non arging in the back seat....
Get a plain sheet of paper and draw a letter box, a phone box, a bus stop and a yellow van , a dog a cat and a flag down one side.
Then draw a line down the middle give them a pen and tell them to make a mark next to the item every time they see it...

Oh, that reminds me of a similar one for very young ones, charliecat - it just distracts them for a bit if they are about to have a meltdown.

Call out "who can see a red car?" "Who can see a man walking a dog?"

Make sure there are about 6 men with dogs coming up if your child is as crap at this as mine is

Franny - will try treasure handbag for dd3 on loooong trip to Wales this summer. (Will brief older dds to pick up contents as she drops them )

sedation with a heavy mallet.

Im my basket, I had a cat, a dog, a lampost, a bogey ect

bribery, sorry rewards! when wedrive to south of france, kids get a treat for being good every say 80 miles, little puzzle book, snack, etc. so just stock up on cheap treates but def worth it!

Charliecat, I don't want to hold your basket, if you're looking for volunteers

Deffo the dvd player. and LOTS of dvds.

Map of route pasted on card, with stickers for her to put on as we go showing our progress.