05 8 / 2011
Traveling with Toddlers
written by BROOKE
My sister in law made a comment once about sharing a room on a trip with her kids. “If I have to do that it’s not a VACATION!” I have news for you, Honey: There are NO vacations when it comes to kids (except for the ones without them).
I love trips with my kids, the family time, bonding, time with Dad/Hubby. But I would call them many things before I’d call them a vacation.
We’re one of those annoying couples who bought our minivan early in anticipation of many children. I’m married to an accountant, so it’s what we DO. We make spreadsheets and plan ahead. On our last trip, with only two children, we managed to pack the ENTIRE back of the van with crap (with the back seats down). It worries me slightly. I mean, where are our future 3rd and 4th children going to ride?! We’re getting dangerously close to channeling the Griswolds here.
We are road trippers, although we weren’t always. But with two kids, the cost of airline tickets plus renting a car on the other end outweighs the annoyance of the 12 hours trapped in a car with two children. Plus, the looks I got from other passengers the last time I flew with the boys has me thinking that I’m doing the world a service this way.
After many, many road trips with very, very young children I’ve come up with a few pointers. I think they’re worth sharing.
1. Drive at night. Sleeping kids = happy kids = kids that aren’t bugging you. Every hour they sleep is one less hour I have to listen to “Backyardigans” and listen to MY music instead. We drive as much as we can at night and stop to sleep when necessary.
2. Expect barf. Between falling off-schedule, germinating with other kids, eating new foods and driving in the car, a child is BOUND to barf at some point. My 3 1/2 year old has yet to take a long trip without throwing up. Gallon size zip lock bags are your friend (if you’re lucky enough to have one old enough to announce when it’s coming). For us, it’s usually disaster clean up instead of prevention. Have a change of clothes handy, some garbage or grocery bags and LOTS of wipes. There’s only so much you can do. Also, since my kids are “blankie” kids we’ve found it’s good to have a back up. Trying to explain to a sick 3 year old that he can’t have a blanket because his is covered in vomit is not fun.
3. Movies. And stickers. They have saved us. I bless the people who integrated the DVD player into the minivan. They were gods.
4. Snacks. I am pretty healthy and I try to feed my kids healthily too, but I’ll admit that when it comes to keeping them happy on the road I’ll do just about anything. Teddy Grahams and Fruit Loops, two road trip only foods. Nothing crumbly or sticky! I’ve learned my lesson from raisins and Ritz Crackers.
5. New toys. Go to the dollar store and buy some new toys and dole them out at intervals.
6. Tire them out. We do short naps the day that we’re leaving (or no naps at all). When we stop for meals, we don’t sit at a restaurant. We find a park or a mall and let ‘em run.
7. Laugh. On our last trip the baby was screaming, the 3 year old had vomited and we were pulling over every 20 minutes because he also had the runs. We were only 1 hour from home but stuck in terrible LA traffic and I just had to laugh. I mean seriously, we are going to look back on these trips and laugh so why not do it now? Getting mad or freaking out doesn’t help. You run that kid in to the nasty bathroom off the LA freeway and you just laugh.
