Thursday, August 7, 2014

3 Car Trip Necessities When Traveling with Toddlers

Here we are another week passed and we're ready for our "One Year and Beyond" series, this week's topic? Car Trip Necessities. You know, to be really honest here, we don't really do that many car trips, unless you could a 3 hour drive a car trip? But it was all in one day, so 6 hours in a car, I guess that counts, right? So here they are.

1. Potty training sucks, up on side and down the other, especially on long car trips. I have been tempted to just say screw it an put a diaper on him, but then what is that teaching him? Nothing, so for a few months it will suck. Make sure you leave plenty of time for bathroom breaks, and go to the bathroom before leaving your house, and try to limit water intake before and during the trip. It will save you, trust me, we learned the hard way. We haven't gone far enough where we need to actually plan a stop, but so far we've had to stop half the time, sometimes we'll just stop and eat lunch instead of getting right back on the road. (note: we have a lot of family about 2 hours away and just a hour away (we like that family best, haha, just kidding), so we're constantly in the car on the weekends, not usually enough time to warrant a stop if everyone has used the bathroom before we leave).
2. This doesn't really apply to us right now, but I'm going to say it anyway. We used to have an iPad (it was Mr.'s for work, which we don't have any more - I know we are probably the only people that don't own an iPad or something like that), and we used it ONLY on airplanes for movies, so Baby Fox thinks it's for airplane rides. But if we had that, or some sort of DVD system in our car, we would probably let them watch some movies in the car, if the car trip was going to be over 2 hours long.

3. We play a lot of games, like a lot.
  • We actually play "the quiet game" and it's actually silent for a little bit, it's awesome. But we make it a game, we all cover our mouths and then usually me or Mr. pretends to talk so we lose the game (I can't for the life of me find the picture I took of him doing that). Baby Fox thinks it's hilarious and he can play that game for at least 20 minutes if we keep playing along.
  • We play the "I Spy" Game
  • We reverse role play, where Baby Fox will be me and I will be him, it's hilarious
  • We make anything and everything a game, like the quiet game or let's see if Mini Fox is asleep yet, let's find the next (Fill in the type) kind of truck
  • Lately Baby Fox has been into making up stories, so we all go around and make up a store about ghosts is the hot topic at the moment
  • And sometimes, we just all sit in silence and watch everything that passes by, or we look for trucks
Bottom line, we don't really distract him much with things, we have a lot of conversation and quiet time. We rarely listen to the radio/music*. And we don't typically allow eating in the car, sometimes Cheerios, but rarely do we do that. So far it's really worked out for us, but we've always done this, so he doesn't know any different. I think some of my fondest memories are road trips with my family, don't particularly remember the trip, but we all remember being on the road together. We're hoping we can do the same for our kids, talking and laughing our way to our next destination.

*see number 2

  Hopefully you can find these tips helpful for your summer travels.  Make sure to check out the other mama's blogs for even more tips!  And be sure to link up with us below if you also have a post on this.
July 10:  Keeping your marriage alive with a toddler
July 17:  Favorite summer toddler activities
July 24:  Helping Your Toddler to Communicate (Words, emotions, etc.)
July 31:  Dealing with Separation Anxiety
Aug 7:    Car Trip Necessities
Aug 14:  Deciding when the time is right for baby #2 (and/or how to handle these questions)
Aug 21:  Tricks for eating out with your toddler
Aug 28:  Feeling confident as a mom (How to feel this way, Your struggle with, etc.)


  1. It does seem like everyone has iPads, huh? I don't have one either so don't worry haha I really like that you guys play games. I'm sure it makes the car ride a lot more fun. How is that reverse role play going? I bet you have a lot of funny conversations!

  2. totally wish I had of joined this link up when it started because I love reading them so much! Apparently I need linkups to force me to find blogging time