My little family and I had to make a quick little road trip to the next state up. We were looking at a 5 hour trip without stops. With a 1 year old, that length could get stretched by a little to quite a lot. If you haven’t read my past post on traveling by train, we had chosen that method in the past due to my sons past hate with his car seat. We have made leaps and bounds with his dislike of the car seat, and he now seems to be quite impartial. Like anyone, he only fusses when there is something wrong or it has been an all day in and out sort of day. All seems pretty reasonable to me. That being said, we haven’t had quite a lengthy stretch of being strapped into a seat without lengthy stops in between. We were on somewhat of a time crunch, so we were trying out best to have as little of stops possible. We also made sure to leave pretty early in the morning. My son likes to sleep in, so this would hopefully give us at least an hour of sleeping for the first part of the trip. The rest of the trip is what leads me to my tips and tricks for keeping a occupied and mostly happy baby on any lengthy car ride.
Tip 1 is to prepare lots of distractions ahead of time. What I mean by this is to have an activity, snack, and maybe even some music for every hour. Don’t give them everything all at once either. If you want to really be organized, you can prepare a bag for every hour with a different snack and toy. I would also bring some extra toys just in case one doesn’t seem to be making the cut for an hour long distraction. I am not that organized, so I just threw tons of toys in one bag, and tons of different snacks and drinks in another.
Tip 2 is to make some planned stops no matter what. Obviously with a baby there are no exceptions. They need their diapers changed. They need to be fed. And its also great for everyone to get out and stretch for a bit. We made sure to absolutely have a brunch place picked out that was almost half way. We also found multiple rest stops along the way that had nice grassy areas to sit and stretch out for a bit.
Tip 3 and this one is a little hit or miss with people. I used to feel like screen time was an absolute no. I really didn’t want to influence my child with computers and television. Over time, I started to realize how illogical that is this day and age. First, my sons generation uses technology. It’s an important part of how the world works. I wouldn’t want to keep him from being able to keep up with the ways of the world. Even to get a job these days, you have to know your way around a computer. This does not mean that children should have screen time all the time. It has been proven to not be as beneficial to their development. But if once a day for 30 minutes or so you let your child have a show or game on a tablet, its not going to hurt them. My son is only 1, so there’s not too much he can do with a tablet or computer yet. But I will tell you that I have found the perfect media balance for my son through Ms. Rachel.
If you haven’t heard of Ms. Rachel, and you have a child from the ages of 0 to 5, I would highly recommend you check her out. Her videos are free and located on Youtube. Now, hear me out. She can sound quite obnoxious with her heightened voice to capture our little attention, and the endless repetitive nature of her songs and lessons for our littles, especially since there aren’t that many videos, but it is so worth it. First, the babies love it. I haven’t met one yet that hasn’t loved her. Second, she is really good at what she does and it’s still educational. Third, I don’t know many shows that actually cater to 0-2 year olds. Fourth, try it and see how much you can get done, and then get back to me. Screen time is not my go to on a road trip, but it’s always my back up. Any time my son starts to throw a tantrum in his car seat, I can show him Ms. Rachel and he brightens right up. Maybe its not the greatest technique. I’m sure someone out there will shame me for this. However, I am a first time mom. I do the best that I can. And until I find another way, this works.
So these are a few of my tips and tricks. Have some toys, snacks, and check out Ms. Rachel. I have also found that playing some audio books or podcasts tends to be quite soothing to my babe, depending on the narrator of course. This was a short but sweet little trip, so it was a good tester for when we need to take a much longer road trip in the near future to visit some family a few states over. We shall see how well he does when the trip turns into a multi day event. If any of you have any neat tricks and tips of your own, please share them below! Safe travels.