long trips in the car

[bailbail]

I am going to Newfoundland for Christmas with my 2 yr old son. Yes, I think I might possible be nuts.......:hehe: We are driving and I was wondering if anyone had ideas to make it easier on him and us.

[Tink]

bail, first, welcome to the DML message boards, I hope you enjoy it here as I do.
Now, how long a drive is that for you? Knowing the length of the trip will affect our answers!
Leanne

[boocrane]

I agree, length of the trip can make a difference. We've been traveling with our kids, pretty much since the first was born. I think our first "big trip" was from GA to OH when she was 2 months old. It took us about 12 hours (with having to stop to feed her and such) Our families have always kinda been far away, anywhere from 6-14 hrs. Hubby recently took our girls to GA from here in PA and it took them about 14-16 hours. Now with having 3 kids, if it's that long a trip we stop overnight to give EVERYONE a break. It helps to stop around dinner time and stay overnight, getting up early to head out in the morning (like around 6am). This gives them and us a bit of a break and "down-time" before bed. They can play, swim, whatever for a couple hours after being in the car for so long.
I try to plan ahead. I save up movies we have and don't let them watch them for a month or so. This way they'll watch it in the car, rather than having seen it a lot and be tired of it. Depending on how long we'll be gone, typically I'll rent a couple "new" movies too for them to watch. We use our laptop or bedroom tv/dvd player in the car. We bought an adapter (sp?) a long time ago and it's been a priceless accessory to our car. I make individual snack bags to they don't fight over snacks and don't make a mess.
Try to time your leave time and stops around his schedule if you can. If I remember correctly when my first was that age she napped once or twice a day. I would try to time my trips so that she was feed breakfast, and maybe our first stop would be a rest area for potty/snacks/etc. then she would nap and be ready for a movie (vis versa), next stop would be lunch/potty/etc., then she would nap and be ready for another movie (vis versa), next stop would be a rest area for potty/snacks/etc and so on. Often times we were able to eliminate the rest area stops if she was sleeping. Hubby still hasn't quite gotten the hang of timing it like that lol but it does help if I'm driving it alone to be organized, esp with 3 kids. If I didn't, I'd be stopping every hour for someone to potty or be hungry, etc. Everyone HAS to potty whether they want to or not when we stop too. LOL a lot of times they say they don't have to. I learned very quickly to make them try anyway rather than having them say "I have to potty" 10 min later down the road.
Initially I said I would never have my kids watch that much tv over that short a period of time but we don't travel that often and it's been a life-saver and my mental break often on trips that are long. Makes the trip go by faster for me and them.
Hope that helps some, all I can think of right now. When we stop to eat we plan at <[i]least</[i] one meal to be 30 min or so, and find a place with a playground. They play while we eat, and then we let them eat in the car.