Long distance car journey with 2 under 2! Am I mad?9

[aPixie]

Travelling from south Devon to London tomorrow. Apart from stopping every couple hours to take the boys out of their car seats for a bit, is there any tips you can give me to keep the 21 month old entertained.

We'll hopefully set off just after lunch so hopefully he'll have his nap in the car so that will make it a bit easier. After the last 6hr car journey we did with him, I'm dreading it tbh but any idea's on how to make it easier would be great.

Thank-you

What is he like the car generally? My dd was dreadful on short distance but for some reason if we told her we were going on holiday or something special we would prep her for it. We would drive from London to North Devon! One long stop at somewhere like a NT place with a garden to have a good run around. Bought comics with lots of stickers, lots of snacks, small toys etc. She used to like to play hide and seek at that age - so we would pretend we couldn't see her as she hid behind her comic. We would then pretend to ring up granny, her friends etc....oh yes another idea but a bit of a faff with just you was we would go swimming and then go - she would be so tired that would zonk out
Good luck. I now have two dcs with 3 years apart and long drives are a new challenge

DVD player and a cBeebies DVD work a treat with mine. Or stories on CD

We did several days of very long car journeys with ds (also 21mo) at Christmas and one thing that would keep him quiet for at least an hour was I put together a 'treasure box' using a plastic box with lid he could take on and off and various (safe obv!) things from around the house he wouldn't normally get to play with - as they weren't toys he seemed much keener to play with them iyswim! He was v happy taking them in and out of the box and working out what each did/how it fitted into other things etc

Brilliant idea's. I've got a couple of story cd's and I'm loving the play box idea.

We're going to the shop later to stock up on snacks etc.

I'm sure the 4month old will just sleep but I'm gonna hang a couple of soft books for him to look at anyway.

Thank-you.

drive through the night.....

cookie if I knew that would work we'd do it but the toddler won't sleep but will be tired so it'll make it worse.

you'll be fine...

at Christmas we did Madrid to Cahors (SW France) - 9 hours driving, plus stops. Ok we've only got one (11 months at the time) but we were still dreading it. In the end she was fine. She had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the car which kept her entertained for 2 hours of the trip - I strongly suggest doing this! In fact I'd suggest setting off before lunch and feeding them both in the car (take sandwiches for yourselves) and having their tea ready to give them as well. It'll distract them...

A constantly changing stream of hanging toys above their car seats should help too...

forgot to add: good luck and drive safely!

Er no it's a perfectly normal thing to do