I soon will be going on a 7 hour road trip alone with my youngest kids ages 7 and 1. But how do I keep the 1 year old happy for this long period of time. Usually when he start crying there is an older person in the back and they take him out for a few minutes to comfort him and then put him back in the car seat. But for 7 long hours I will be unable to do that. I know for sometime he will be sleep, then for awhile after he eat he is happy listening to music but then what? HELP PLEASE! I dread this trip already
Thanks guys, I went on the road trip and it was H E double hockey sticks! I WILL NEVER! EVER! DO IT AGAIN! I did buy new toys and packed ALOT of snacks. The way dowb wasnt so bad because they both slept the majority of the way. But it took us like 11 hours to get back because I had to stop ALOT
We take road trips with kids by leaving at 3:00 in the morning....that way the 1st 4 hours they are asleep in the car. Then you take a break for bathroom and breakfast and get another 1.5 hours of drive time behind you before little people are squirmy. I'm sure that your 7 year old will be a big help in the latter few hours of the trip. Then the new toy idea will be good. For older toddlers a new sticker book is great! Have a safe trip!
Make frequent stops.
I buy new toys. Works pretty well.
Since he's never seen these toys before, they captivate his attention.
Will he watch a DVD yet? If so, buy a portable DVD player.
Lots of stops to 'walk around'. Plan on adding at least another hour and a half to your drive time. Then stash new toys under the passenger seat. Toys that have not been seen or played with yet. And stagger the reveal. So that a new plaything happens every few hours or so. Pack music and food and your child's favorite snuggly to make nap times easier.
Good luck!
There IS no good way to satisfy a 1 year old for that long! LOL! I say that with not-so-happy memories of just trying to make 5 hour trips and my husband was driving while I was the entertainment.
I can't imagine doing this alone. You are a trooper!
DVDs were always helpful; my oldest especially loved TV (and still does now at 4.5). She could watch those forever with no problem.
My youngest didn't care to watch DVDs; she wanted me to take her out of the car seat and hold her. Needless to say, I tried to avoid road trips as much as possible.
I would try adjusting your sleep schedule a day or 2 before and try to sleep during the day and then start on your trip around 3 or 4p.m. This way, the baby will be up only for a couple of hours... you can stop, get dinner and then hopefully they drift off to sleep while you sail the rest of the way in.
Or, as someone else suggested, get up early in the morning and do it that way. I always hated getting kids up and into a car seat that early; mine wouldn't go back to sleep easily.
Make sure 7 yr old can reach books and toys the 1 yr old may want. Encourage 7 yr old to read to 1 year old. Upload all kinds of kids music and other music you think your toddler will like to your iPod or burn a CD (we drove from DC to Maine with our almost 2 year old and she loved how her Daddy played ELO's MR BLUE SKY over and over for her!). Stop and change diaper frequently. Stay calm when he cries - when our daughter was 9 months old and we were moving from Colorado to DC she would cry in the car so we created a song that we would sing over and over to her - she would calm down as I think she just wanted us to engage her. I still sing her that song. Now at almost 5 years of age the biggest issue we get with car trips is after she wakes up from a nap she cries that her neck and back hurt. I need to order her a support pillow asap as we have a big road trip coming up on July 1.
Have something planned every 15-20 mins. Seriously! Have a bag of small activities ready to go. Singalong songs, books, books on tape/cd (I get them at the library), toys w/no batteries, toys w/batteries (I'd save these until right before its time to stop and plenty of snacks.
You might have to sit in the back next to him too.
gl!
When my son was that age we lived about 6 hours from family and I always dreaded the trips home. My son likes snacks in the car, but of course you don't want to make a habit of giving them and they also can't eat the entire time. We always had one of us sit in the back seat with him and had a whole stack of books to read to him, toys to play with, things to color, CDs to sing-along to, etc. Maybe your 7 year old can help with that? At that age he loved books and puzzles (simple ones that can easily be done in the car) and he really liked doing the motions to songs. I didn't let him watch any TV at that age, but my sister-in-law swears by their portable DVD player.
With my son we plan to stop every 2-3 hours if we are driving during the day. Before we leave I look for parks on our route and let him get out and swing or run around for 30 minutes. It seems to save everyone's sanity. However, all of that being said, if you can travel post-bedtime everything will be 100 times easier.
Good luck!
