How do you keep your DC awake in the car?

[MrsBeaver]

My DD 3.10 will fall asleep in the car on the way back from my mum's house, a 30 min drive away.

So, if we're travelling back c. 4pm, and she falls asleep in the car, it means she won't be tired enough for bedtime at 7.30pm, so I have to keep her up later, and then I don't get an evening to myself to MN

So how can I keep her awake? The only alternative is I leave mum's house earlier, but mum gets grumpy if I do that...

I have no idea
My evil SM sings the 'mnom mnoma' song from the Muppets very loudly to her DD to try and keep her awake (that was a weird car trip)
How often are you at your Mums - if it's daily, I can see the problem.
Have you tried listening to stories in the car - and keeping some so that the only place you listen is in the car - thus more exciting.
Talk to her constantly, play i-spy type games, keep the car really cool (windows open).

My two used to fall into a deep sleep within seconds of picking them up from nursery for the 5 min journey home, so I feel your pain.

It could be up to 3x a week during the holidays...

I used to have the same problem and the only thing I found worked was chocolate , a good old fashioned sugar rush to last til teatime/bathtime bed.

morsels of chocolate brownie passed back one small bit at a time, and a whole-family-rendition of "Old Macdonald" (and other animal-noises-songs) with the 3y.o. responsible for dreaming up which unlikely animal is going to feature in the next verse.

At what age do you think DC grow out of falling asleep on a short-ish journey?

Could you put her in her pjs at your mams and drive back at bedtime and scoop her out and straight into bed? Do that once a week and then two much earlier drives home of say 3pm.

Dunno my DH falls asleep on the Metro.on the way home from work every day

I feel your pain. Small, highly spaced morsels of sweet/chocolate (often in return for spotting something, like a blue van or whatever) are the only things that work for us.