Road trips spark curiosity, unveil the unexpected, and allow us to follow our whims on itineraries. Our second home is on the road.
The ability to follow whims became more important when West became our newest adventure teammate. Although his whims often differ from ours, we find middle ground.
We only have a very few parenting strategies but a big one is around road trips.
Since before West was born, we committed to getting him on the road often so he didn’t know any different. This strategy has panned out.
He’s almost 19 months old now and has spent tens of thousands of miles on the road and we can finally, confidently say that he handles the car well.
We don’t blink an eye at drives under five hours and have done road trips where the time on road totaled well over twenty hours for the week.
In fact, I think his road warrior status made him a better airplane traveler, because on the airplane he can move around and we are right there with him.
Tips for Road Trips with Kids:
- Get ’em out early and often. A road warrior is born through hours on the road. That car seat should feel like home. (Side note: Greg hates our baby car seat – we don’t do reviews of products we don’t support so you won’t get to hear why we don’t like the Britax B-Safe 35… it’s nothing safety related, just a bunch of stupid designs that make it supremely frustrating to use).
- Drive during nap time. An obvious one, but tried and true. We try to time a trip departure or a post-lunch restart to coincide with his regular nap schedule. Often West doesn’t nap as long in the car as he does at home, but any quiet time while he sleeps is glorious. A full kid, a warm seat, and the quiet hum of the road is magic.
- Music. And I don’t mean kid music (yikes!). I mean your music – put on the music you like, assuming you can find something that isn’t too energetic! We do have one mix of my folk favorites that seems to put West to sleep every time. In fact, music serves as critical white noise for sleep when we drive.
- Road Trip Snacks, obviously. You don’t want to risk choking so most road snacks are more appropriate for when the kiddos are a bit older. I hand West an endless stream of snacks when we drive… Sandwich cookies… Pirate Booty… cheddar bunnies… blueberries. I just keep it coming. The backseat is encrusted with castoffs.
- Toys. New toys or toys that you put into rotation to keep them fresh. We have found the best car toys stack or have things you can put in other things…. something a bit challenging so it will take a while to work out. This Fat Brain Dimpl Stack was particularly excellent, because it stacked, popped, and could hold snacks. These Lamaze Crinkle toys were great when he was under six months.
- Books. Books as car entertainment did not take hold until West hit 18 months, but now they seem to hold his attention the longest. Books that have flaps and interaction are even more winning like Peek-a-Who and Feely Bugs.
- Stop the car and explore. This is a road trip after all. Oftentimes, we try to plan out our stops around something we want to see. We all need to get out and move. Sometimes we make emergency stops in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, because the kid has been crying for over an hour.
- But don’t stop too often. We often preserve through some whining. I find that drives with West don’t take us much longer than usual, because we are patient when he whines. Usually, the whining can be diverted with a little fun and time.
- When all else fails, get in the back seat. We don’t sit in back with him, but when he gets really bored we pop over. This almost always goes the the job done… at least for awhile. We sing, we peek-a-boo, we stick things in other things…. Some quality toddler time as we speed down the highway
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