Wait, drive? Kids? Whole day in car?
The "Are we there yet?", "I have to pee!", "My toy/book/food fell and I can't reach it.", etc, etc. What, am I insane?!?! Maybe a little, but that has nothing to do with any of this. :)
I like to think that with as much as we drive , I've come up with handy ways to survive. So today my friends, I share these ways with you.
#1: "Are We There Yet? ...How 'Bout Now?
When I was a kid, we looked out the window and listened to the radio... Apparently nowadays that's too boring.
We pack their electronics, and movies ( dvd player = life saver...just sayin'). For long trips, I sometimes pick up a movie the kids have been wanting to see. Since it's Halloween time, I got them the "Monster High" dvd for our trip and they were excited and quiet for at least that hour and a half. Plus they watched it once more later in the drive.
Free printable coloring pages are always good, it's different from coloring books they have and it's free! Two sets of each color of crayon, of course because heaven forbid they share.
Drawing pad. They draw and make all kinds of stuff with plain paper. On the way back from our trip they had made pretend money and a menu and were playing "restaurant".
All of this stuff goes in a reusable tote that hangs on the armrests between their seats so both can get to it. If they are sitting in the bench seat in the back of the van, I'll store all the little stuff in one of those hanging toiletry bags, and hang it off of the middle headrest that's between them.
Oh and clipboards make all the difference!
#2: "I Dropped Everything That Was In My Lap"
"I dropped my toy and I can't reach it!"
"Sucks to be you"...is what you want to say, but you can't so instead the parent not driving has to do contortionist moves to try and find, reach, and return item to kid.
If it's just one parent in car, then you resort to feeling around while listening to kids yell, "It's over there! No, over there!" Because you know where "over there" is. And voila! you actually managed to find it and two seconds after you hand it to a kid, "I dropped it again."
#3: "I Have to go to the Bathroom"
Oh joy, public restrooms...especially gas station ones...
If it's possible we try to get gas near a Target or Wal-Mart, the restrooms there are generally cleaner than the gas station, and we can stretch out by doing a walk around the store. We almost always remember stuff we forgot to pack while we do this so it's a handy bonus .
Two things I always travel with, flushable wipes and Potty Toppers ( and if I remember, a travel size lysol can).
You never know when you'll get stuck in that stall that has run out of toilet paper. A pack of wipes is much easier than carrying your own roll.
Potty Toppers...not just for toddlers. You buy them in packs of 10, they are thick and cover the entire toilet seat ,and they have two stickies on the back so it doesn't slip off the seat before you make contact. A little bit of tushy heaven for you and your child in an otherwise icky situation.
#4: "When Was the Last Time We Ate Fries?"
So fun to clean out the van after a trip and find rock hard french fries, trail mix, tiny partially melted m&m's...
This time though, after a 10 hr trip there and a 10 hr trip back, all I found was a stray chip and one piece of shredded cheese. Not too shabby in my book!
How is that possible with kids eating...in a car!?!
I found some handy trays, nothing fancy, the kinds you use to organize kitchen and bathroom drawers. The inside has a rubberized bottom so things don't slide around and it was just big enough for their meal/snack to fit into...everything stayed in the tray and it was fabulous!
#5: "The Trash Bag is Leaking...."
In the past, we've always kept grocery bags in the car to use as trash bags. They inevitably get knocked over or that hole you didn't notice before suddenly appears. YAY!
Last year I found a little pop up hamper that I put the bag in, clipping the edges of the bag to it with chip clips. This method works decently but sometimes it didn't want to stay popped up so that was iffy.
Recently though, a friend of mine and I were in search of disposable garbage "cans" to use for our school's carnival. Yes, they have these, and they are...awesome!!
They pop up and they stay up. I thought , those would work great for a car trip, and you know what? They work great for a car trip!! I couldn't find the standard trash one at the store but I did find the recycle one. Same thing, this one just says "recycle" on the side. Comes in a pack of 3. And if you have nothing too icky, you could just empty it out at the gas station and reuse the same one for the same trip.
It stayed popped up, held all of our trash. The thicker than a grocery bag plastic did not leak. Loved it! I think the recycle ones work better in a car..they are a little smaller than the trash ones.
"Flings", get some! http://flingsbins.com/
All in all it was one of our more organized trips and that made travel life so much easier.
Does any of this help? Do you feel better about strapping in the kiddos and hitting the open road?
What do you do to make road trips easier for you and yours? Ear plugs? Separate cars? What works for you?
