Since the birth of our first child 4.5 years ago, my husband
and I have taken our daughter(s) on 26,054 miles worth of road trips divided
between about 20 trips. That means we have driven more than the equivalent of once around the world with little kids in the backseat! We travel a lot. We travel because we live hundreds of miles
away from many people that we love, and we like to travel. I’d like to think we
are becoming experts on traveling with little kids, and we have yet to occupy
our children at all with screens. Here are things we do to make traveling
smooth:
1. Packing List: We
always make a packing list. If we did not we would forget something essential.
At times we have forgotten essential things, but usually we do not. Further, it
keeps us from packing things we don’t need.
2. Food for the car: I
know that a lot of families have rules about food in the car. On road trips, food
is essential for happy, well-contented children. Some people like to stop for
lunch, even when it is just a sack lunch. On full-day road trips we always eat
lunch in the car, sometimes even dinner. If it takes your children 30 minutes
to eat dinner, that is 30 minutes of content and happy road time, and 30 miles
of road gone by. Sometimes we even do dinner on the road. When choosing food
for the car I like to pick easy to chew foods. One of my favorite foods for the car is string cheese, even our 10
month old could eat this in the car. We always bring a small cooler, since
having cold snacks is a nice break from room temperature crackers and pretzels.
The kids each have a snack cup that they can easily hold, which we refill with
snacks and meals at each stop.
3. Toys and books for
the car: We have several
essential car toys. The first is a magna-doodle
per child. baby doll per child. Since our oldest
was one she loved having her doll in the car. It is perfect for seated,
imaginative play. I am not sure what would be a good comparable toy for a boy
(dinosaurs?). And finally, lots and lots
of books. The girls have a basket of books placed between their seats and
they spend much of each trip looking through these books. I always pick out
books that are thin paper backs with lots of pictures. We have a number of
children’s magazines that they love to look through also. That is it. We
started our road trips four years ago with these types of toys and they have
not failed us.
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| We bought them here. |
4. Good Music and Audiobooks: My
husband and I both collected a lot of music before we met, and after many years
of road trips we have our favorite road trip music. The whole collection of our
favorites usually gets us there and back again. Plus, our kids have a taste for
and enjoy the music as well. Our oldest is now able to simple chapter books, so we have started to use audiobooks for the family to enjoy. Though we did our last 1900 mile round trip with just music.
5. On the Nursing Baby:
I have traveled with three nursing babies over the past 4.5 years. In
general my babies have been able to wait 2-3 hours in between nursing, which is
generally about how long we drive between stops. I have always brought a
pump so that I can bottle feed the baby when a stop is not convenient or we are trying to
make better time. I know some mom’s who exclusively pump while on the road. For
us, we have found that we can do a stop in 20 minutes even with nursing if I
take the older girls to the bathroom while M changes the baby’s diaper in the
car (with a minivan there is no need to take the baby into the restroom). When
I return to the car, I feed the baby and M get’s his turn on the restroom. When
he comes back, he sets up the kids with snacks and gathers the toys and books
back to their basket.
*I would advise against nursing the baby while the car is
moving (leaning over the carseat). I did it once, but shortly after read thispost about the dangers of doing so. The safety of a baby is more important than
saving 10 minutes.
6. Rest Stops: I
explained the basic idea of rest stops above, but I will reiterate it. We find
that arranging them so that no parent is waiting around is the most efficient
way to stop. Further, everyone has to go at EVERY stop. If we had boys, I
suspect we would stop even faster since then I could go to the restroom
alone... Another tip I have is for newly potty-trained children to travel in a
diaper or training pants. Accidents happen.
7. Empty Gas Station coffee
cups (with a separate lid) are great for road sickness. Trust me, you don’t want your child to
miss the cup...
8. When possible travel
with favorite pillows, toys, blankets, white noise machines, travel beds. I could devote a whole post to my
favorite travel items. Our favorite white noise machine is this:
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| Dohm-DS Sound Screen |
It pulls air through itself, making a soft but powerful sound blocking white noise to make the sound of home anywhere we are. We use a Pack N Play for the baby, and this portable cot for toddlers.
That is about it. Happy traveling!
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