tips on driving with a 2 yr old for 31 hours?
by admin on Monday, April 18th, 2011 | 6 Comments
we will be driving 31 hours in about 3 days. we will be getting a hotel at night time anytips to make this trip go easier? and what should i bring we will be going hiking and such for about a week..not camping just day trips to places in washington the port angeles area
Just wrap up the toddler tightly and chuck in in the trunk
we drove to poland from the uk when my little one was around 2. that was 36 hours. she was a very good traveller anyway as she always fell asleep in the car. but just in case a gave her travel sickness pills for infants. whenever we took a break in driving i would walk around with her, even if it meant waking her up..after all she slept all the time while we were driving. a couple of her favourite toys, a tape with childrens songs to sing to. wet wipes. snacks.obviously plenty of changing clothes at hand for those little spill accidents. have a great journey!
I would recommend considering allowing yourself to take four days versus three days if it becomes necessary to maintain peace.
The biggest problems the 2 year old will face are the same ones we all face; needing to stretch and boredom.
With regard to stretching I recommend pulling over for about 10 minutes every hour that the toddler is awake while you drive. This doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. A rest area or simply along a quiet road will give a chance to stretch and look around.
With regard to boredom, the best way to deal with this is to encourage looking outside the car to see what they can see, and make up stories about what they see. If they see a cow standing in a pasture it becomes a magical cow that is resting between adventures. Then you can get into questions about what adventures the cow has had and the adventures it is resting up for.
Bring a portable dvd player and a few dvds & music CDs that your child likes. Also have some snacks and drinks in the car. Good Luck!
I travelled 15 hours with my 8 month old girl and 5 year old Nephew for Thanksgiving. I found stopping at intresting points along the route was benifical not only to my daughter but me and the other occupants as well. It of course took longer than normal but we all kept our sanity. She was only crawling at the time but getting out of the car seat for 20 minutes to a 30 hour and seeing sights unfamilar, moving around, fresh air and such kept her from fits. For the 5 year old it was time to air his britches and make noise and be active. We stopped about every 2 to 3 hours. Just have to plan for a longer more elaborate trip when traveling with kids.
We travled a lot when the kids were little.
- leave home EARLY in the AM (like 2 or 3 AM) we would plop the kids in the car in their Jammies and by the time they woke up – we would be in an area that they had not been before. We also did what we called “rip and tear’ stops. We would stop at a rest area and race each other, or hop or skip or run backwards – anything to make things silly.
- we always stopped by 4:00 and stayed at a place with a pool. (goal is tire kids out)
- each kid had their own little lunch kit of snack things and a small container of busy things – coloring, small toys etc.
We managed with no dVD player or video games – imagine that.