entertaining 14mth old in the car

[tasmaniandevilchaser]

hi, we don't go in a car all that often, but will be driving a lot on holiday this summer.

DD gets very very grumpy and bored in the car when we do go. I have quite a low tolerance to being trapped in a car, stuck in traffic with a shouty, whingy, bored child and can only sing 'wheels on the bus' so many times.

When she was younger she slept more and normally I sat in the back and 'entertained' her which got a bit wearing tbh. It would be nice to have another option, so I could sit in the front and have 30 mins of peace and quiet (I know I'm asking a lot!).

I did a search for old threads and the links had 'died'. She's still small enough for our rear facing car seat (having checked with the car seat manufacturers) so she can't really look out of the window unfortunately.

We're borrowing a car and it doesn't have a CD player, can you even buy tapes anymore?!

Any suggestions for toys or something homemade? I'm not very arty but would give making something a go.

board books. musical instruments. food (although that may be more difficult to pass to her in a rear facing seat). get something to attach toys to the seat so that she doesn't lose them.

30 mins is not that long really.

thanks for your suggestions, the journeys will be longer than 30 mins (2hrs min), but I'm not optimistic enough to think that she'll be entertained with anything for longer than 30 mins!

plan to drive if you can around her nap time, or drive in the evening (just put her in PJs before you leave).

Make sure you break the journey up so she can have a run around.

I think books could be the way forward, she loves 'reading' books now and if I can get ones we can attach, it might keep her entertained.

I think it's being constrained she doesn't like, if she could roam all over the car, choosing toys as she goes, she'd be perfectly happy!

For children's story or song tapes check charity shops or put a wanted ad on freecycle.

buy a few new cheap toys as well so that they are exciting and hand them to her when one at a time when she starts to get really tetchy.

We have www.elc.co.uk/toy/scribble-go/ this for our dd's, i think i bought it for dd2 when she was 2 (so your dd might be a bit too young) and it still gets used now (dd's are 6 and 4) each time we go out. I also used to fill a shoe box with little interesting things to keep in the back of the car so she could rummage through it (board books, small toys, photo's etc..).

We are going away next weekend (3 hour drive) so i'm already collecting things to keep the dd's quite .

a shoe box of crap! she would absolutely love that, will start collecting now!

Will also have a selection of 'new' toys (i.e. toys I've hidden away for a while) to dazzle her with, thanks choufleur

Buy a cheap 7" DVD player that can be strapped to the back of passenger seat. Sony does a great one and it comes with the straps.

We got The wheels on the bus with Mango & Papaya and our dd LOVES it! Well worth the money.

I would be cautious with the DVD player. We bought one for long car journey with DS last year and it made him car sick. It's now only brought out in the car in we're stuck in large traffic jam and hardly moving.

DD loves the dvd player on long journeys... is a total life saver!!