Last week I had a great aunt that passed away. And over the weekend I traveled with my parents to Huntsville, Alabama.
I haven’t been to Huntsville in about 3 years and last time I went I took Emma with me, DJ wasn’t born yet. Even though the circumstances weren’t the best I enjoyed getting a chance to see family that I don’t get a chance to see on a regular basis.
I have always loved a good road trip and I always hoped that my kids would love “hitting the road as well”…and actually they do pretty well in the car but this trip has been the longest trip so far for both of them.
On the way back to Cleveland I was riding critiquing myself on our trip. I have the kids all day because I’m a SAHM, and Darrick didn’t come along for the trip. We were 10 hours away from home for almost 4 days. So not only was it a pretty long trip in the car, but a lot of the people they were around were new. Overall we had a great time and I think most of my lessons I learned were on the road…
5 things I learned on the Road with my Two Littles…
1. Make Sure to pack a goodie and game bag…kids get restless, and if you have goodies and games usually you can keep their attention and they will forget they’re in the car or they will play until they fall asleep (I found a lot good crafts that we could use in the car on Blitsy)! For this trip I packed electronics and toys in their personal backpacks. They loved carrying their own bags around and I loved that I didn’t have a bunch of toys in my purse.
2. Make time for Stops! Kids need to get out of the car and stretch their legs, so if you need to be somewhere by a certain time, it’s good to leave early to have time for stops and time for the kids to burn some energy off!! I made sure to get the kids out of the car at all the stops, and I would let them run around…then once they seemed tired we got back in the car and they would ride for a little bit then they would go to sleep. This routine made going to Alabama easy, but it wasn’t this easy coming back.
3. Leave late at night or before day in the Morning…we swear by this method when traveling with kids, especially in the car. I let them stay up a little later than I normally would, put them to bed in whatever they’re traveling in…so when it’s time to go all you have to do is get them to go to the bathroom or change a diaper and put them in the car. We left for Alabama at 5am and they kids were good and sleepy…by the time they were in car and a blanket over their legs they were sleep before we got on the freeway good.
4. Try to stay on normal eating patterns…we left early so when the kids started waking up we were stopping for breakfast. Staying on normal eating patterns lowers the risks of hunger meltdowns. The kids slept until about 7:30/8am so once they woke up they were READY breakfast. The one thing I tried to do was keep their eating patterns the same, and it worked perfectly on the road!
5. Pack a Change of Clothes for the Car…this was by far my BIGGEST lesson on the way home. On the way down south the kids pretty much slept most of the way. However, on the way back I wasn’t so lucky, we had a few accidents and I had to dig through luggage to find dry clothes. One accident was a cup of juice spilling, the other was a potty accident…so next trip I take I will make sure that I have a small bag packed with a change of clothes! My kids don’t really mess up their clothes unless it’s with food, so I couldn’t believe that I really had to dig for clothes…but I will be prepared next time!
What lessons have you learned in going on a road trip with your little ones?
