Embarking on a long car journey pre-children meant running safety checks before hitting the road. Testing your tyre pressure, oil, water and fuel. Ensuring you had enough snacks and creating the perfect soundtrack to get you there. It wasn’t all bad.
Throw children into the mix and it’s an entirely different story. Although you still have to run the essential pre-road trip safety checks. Making sure you have the correct type of tyres, which can be done using handy sites such as tyreplus. You also have to figure out how you’ll make it through the next 6 hours without wanting to stick pins in your eyes.
As we prepared to take a 6-hour drive with Little Fox I was anxious, would be screaming by the time we got there? Two-year-olds do not like to sit still. And I’m sure it’s not just ours…
They certainly don’t like being strapped down for long periods of time either.
So how did we manage 6 hours of scream free, relatively relaxed driving? I can’t lie it involved technology and food. Of course, it did.
Last year we did the exact same journey from our home to Butlins at Minehead and Little Fox slept for the majority of it. He also didn’t know what an iPad was. Now, at almost 3 years old he’s far more interested in other things and needs entertaining. We took his favourite toy cars, colouring books, and plenty of snacks. Oh, and the trusty iPad.
Obviously, I’m not against toddlers having some screen time or using a tablet. But I wouldn’t condone sitting them down with one for 6 hours straight, as much as it could keep the peace. But if it saves your sanity…
To my surprise, Little Fox was quite reserved with his iPad usage. We used the Netflix app to download his favourite TV shows for offline use and let him choose what to watch. He used it intermittently for around 30-40 minutes then passed it back whilst he played with his cars for an hour or so. I was impressed!
Netflix combined with a what remained of our Heavenly tasty toddler snacks saw us through 6 hours of driving. We did stop at services to stretch his little legs and refuel ourselves with a substantial meal but overall it was a total success.
We didn’t lose out sanity, we didn’t scream or yell, pins were not prodded into one’s eyes and we didn’t turn to drinking, not that I could have if I wanted to. Having driven for 6 hours with a 2 year old and arriving at our destination still sane. Dare I say, it was alright!
What are your top travel tips when taking children on long journeys?
