Yes there will be fights… and mess… and chaos on car trips with children… (actually most of these things can happen with adults too!).
The drama aside, here are a few tips that work for our tribe – especially on a recent 12 hour road trip. Still to this day, it was one of our favourite days of that particular holiday, wait… what?! (No that wasn’t a typo!).
WHAT WORKS FOR US
LOWER THEIR EXPECTATIONS EARLY
Go low. Lower. No lower… there you go!
We embark on many a long car trip, but before this 12-hour expedition we sat our children down the day prior and made sure they understood we would be in the car BEFORE the sun comes up… and STILL in the car after the sun goes down!
Like, literally. not. doing. anything. else.
Of course there will be rest stops along the way, but lowering their expectations meant they wouldn’t be disappointed and we could avoid the old ‘are we there yet?’ question 4,000 times en route!
MUSIC TAMES THE SAVAGE BEAST
We purchased the latest commercial hits mix from iTunes. The key here is to buy what the children like, not what you do! I promise it will be worth it.
This one album gave us countless hours of peace. The children sang along happily plus it’s an ideal way to drown out the sound when they start knit-picking each other over who has more snacks.
Audio books
RUN FORREST RUN!
Maximise your pit stops with exercise, not eating (save that for the car!).
We stopped at two to three playgrounds/parks along the way with the soccer ball to encourage them to move!
By the time we got back into the car, their little legs were ready for a rest – and they were also too tired to kick our seats in front of them! Bonus.
GUESSING GAMES
One of our favourite car games is playing “Guess which animal I’m thinking of”. One person thinks of an animal, then we each take turns asking a question (like “Does it have fur?”, “Does it walk on four legs” etc) while the person in the hot seat can only answer yes or no.
Daggy? Yes.
Effective? Absolutely!
SNACK ATTACK
We had endless supplies of all and sundry which we drip fed to them throughout the trip.
NOTE: You may also like to pack them individual snack bags, but we find they either eat them all too soon, or spill them all over the car! Keeping them in suspense about what exciting treats we’ve packed can also be used as currency (aka bribes) when they’re playing up too!
Above all else, AVOID too much sugar and food preservatives/additives. The fights always seem to break out after we’ve let them have processed/sugary treats. Save these for arrival at the destination when you’re not confined to a small space!
P.S. ONLY pack water for the car and save the juices (read: sticky disasters) for the pit stops!
RIDING IN CARS WITH ‘TOYS’
We pack a handful of their favourite toys including soft ones for doubling as pillows.
Re-usable colouring pads like these
SOME OF OUR ROAD TRIPPING ESSENTIALS
- A bucket (far better than travel sickness bags and can double as a rubbish bin. If you need to use it, you can just replace the bin bag)
- Spare bin bags
- Wipes, wipes and more wipes
- Nappy bag
- Pillow Pets
(or soft toys for doubling as pillows)
- Car seat mirror
to keep an eye on rear facing bubs
- Houdini Car Seat Clip
for wriggly babies
- Window shade
- Pain relief tablets
- Basic first aid kit
- Magnetic games
and reusable colouring pads
So tell us, what are your favourite tips or products for surviving road trips?
We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Until next time, safe travels team!
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Love the pram it’s amazing
Great little read… added a couple of tricks to my list for our next road trip 😉
Glad we could help Amy! We’re currently off on a 7-hour road trip camping – listening to our audio books! ✔️😊