Tips for surviving long car journey with a toddler!

[Littlepoppet1]

We are travelling 6 hours to the other side of the country in a few weeks sign 22 MO DD to visit family. We have done the drive with her before but she was only 5 MO then so was still sleeping a lot which made it more bearable! Just wondered if anyone has any tips to help us keep her entertained on the journey!! Thanks!

One word - snacks! I made little snack boxes to deploy as needed. Also, try and do it timed around her daytime sleep so she is sleeping for an hour or two. Couple of stops for a wee wander. One of you sit in the back with her for a bit.

Yes I will make sure I have snacks although I don’t want to give her too much in case she gets car sick! We will be travelling during the day so will definitely get a 1.5 hour stretch when she should sleep!
I’m thinking of pre loading the iPad with some cartoons to deploy in a emergency 😂

I’ve recently done an 8 hour journey with my 2 year old. I put together my own “busy bag” for him. We had the following things in it:

Storybooks
Magic water colouring book
Sticker book
Fabric busy “board” made of different clip fastenings
Small new toy digger
Snacks
iPad with some cartoons downloaded

All worked well didn’t really need the iPad. We did lots of looking out of the window for things and singing of nursery rhymes too.
He did also still sleep a good portion of the journey - trunki kids travel pillow was handy for this too.

Good luck!

Definitely the iPad. I don't think it's 'an emergency' - you're just doing what you can to make sure everyone is happy and calm. Which is better than worrying about screen time.

We used to leave at 4/5 am. They might drift off again, you can stop for breakfast and miss the traffic. And if The iPad had existed, I wd have used it!!

When we had long journeys to make when our DC were that young we used to leave at 4am and transfer them straight from bed into the car so they could carry on sleeping for a good 3-4 more hours. We got them to pick a blanket and put their slippers at the end of their beds the night before so we could wrap them up warm and take them out to the car. They all loved the ritual so much that they still ask to do the same if we have a long journey, even though my oldest is now 12 and it’s a bit more of a mission to carry him from bed to the car

100% crack out the iPad and leave early. Be prepared to have to offer lots and lots of running around when you arrive so they actually go to bed at the other end of the day! Ours is 21 months and if she doesn’t get enough physical exercise in the day she’s up at 4 the next morning.

Sorry I wasn’t really bothered about screen time I more meant that I don’t want to give it her too early in the journey and her get bored of it haha! I meant saving it for when she’s getting really fed up! Some fab ideas thank you! Transferring straight from bed to car to set off early won’t work with DD, she’ll definitely wake up and stay awake!!!

The trick is to start early, well straight after breakfast having ensured that the kids have run about whilst packing the car, then break the journey halfway with a fun activity - on a decent day a park is a good option, on rainy days we found a McDonald's with a play area or even walked around a mall with a Disney store or toys r us (yes kids are grown). We regularly did 2500 mile road trips from birth ...

Ps no iPads or phones then so I the car it was I spy all the way until they nodded off. We would let them stay up in the evening, still getting them up 7/8am and it helped with more daytime naps

Does she get carsick? Screens really don’t help! Snacks, books, music and lots of Ispy.

Personally I'd avoid the ipad if possible because looking at screens in the car make me feel unwell. I downloaded lots of kids music - Mr tumble has a few albums, and be prepared with games to play with them. Dd is generally happy looking out if the window for relatively long periods of time. And yes to making sure they're very sctive during stops

We do a six hour car journey regularly since our DD was 6 months she's 4 now. The things we have done are
Leave early in the morning- she would sleep longer than a nap the could have a longer break at service station
Food- have lots of little food on hand prepared. DD used to love a kinder egg (see little presents)
Little presents/stickers- for those moment she exhausted everything else it tended to give her second wind and be distracted for ages.
iPad- leave it until the last leg of the journey don't get it out too early we always use it as a last resort
Leap frog leap pad. The book with pen attached. This lives in the car and has been invaluable for non screen time engagement
Have someone sitting next to her. This really helped when she was younger and needed more help as she couldn't quite reach when we passed stuff back. Now she's 4 she's really happy to have our dog next to her and we notice a massive different on her neediness and happiness when she has one of us or the dog next to her compared to no one.

i remember dressing dchildren in jogging suits for bed & washing & changing them at our first breakfast stop in the service station loos! My eldest was badly travel sick & we played counting games which had the beneficial side effect of her learning how to count to100 by school age (not a stealth boast - desperation, anything to distract her!) in those days we only had cassettes - so there endless repeats of Paddington ("Paddington has 2 birthdays a year" still runs in repeat through my head - shudders!) new doll with dressing up clothes. or teddy ditto (& don't forget potty in back of car useful for sick! wipes & towels ditto & change of clothes for them handy & for you if they are sick over you - have some really ripe memories of that - you might need wipes if hey miss & hit seats etc!) Look out for objects on route regard it as a learning game - colours of cars variety of vehicles animals ... & when a bit older word games tail towns was a favourite & read to them & when older get them to read to you. But you need to allow plenty of time & stops. We worked out supermarkets which had cafes nearby on route as they were a lot cheaper & often better than service stations & you can buy a extra book or small toy there to distract a bit further
(Frequent long journeys with 3 (!!!) dc in car in the long distant never to be forgotten past)

Some great ideas thank you!!

Snacks, toys, iPad.
However don't forget to factor in that you should stop every 2 hours to let little one out of the car seat as they shouldn't be in it for more than 2 hours at a time.

We regularly do long journeys and my advice would be:

• snacks
• baby wipes for sticky hands (they also like to 'clean' the car with them)
• stickers
• DVD player that attach to the seat ahead. (can get cheap from Argos) My worry is the iPad flying if you have to break sharply
• toys that don't have small bits which can easily drop
• when older: control of liquids do you don't have to stop every hour for the toilet

All the above controlled by the adult and distributed when needed to stretch the distraction time

At 22m I wouldn't personally feel the need to stop regularly and would go 3-4hrs between breaks. But that's just us personally