How to Survive a LONG car ride with a Toddler and a Baby

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Sometimes unexpected family events happen. If you live close to your family, it’s generally not that big a deal. This past month we attended half a dozen events related to my little brother’s high school graduation, but since we live close by, we could pretty much come and go as we pleased. But when your family lives farther away, visits require a bit more planning and expense. This last week we suddenly needed to be 17 hours away to celebrate the life of our dear Grandma, and after reviewing the options, we decided to drive! This led to the inevitable question: How are we going to survive such a long car ride with our two-year-old toddler and six-month-old baby?

While it’s possible flying could be easier, no direct flights, long layovers and germy planes made us think the car ride might be more survivable. At least in the car we have supreme control over where to stop, how long to stop, when to eat, what music to play, etc. My brain started whirring the instant I heard we were making the trip for plans to survive. Here’s what I cam up with!

Music

We’ve been trying to sleep train the baby a bit (not to mention the toddler…still) and one of the key ingredients to their slumber has been music. We play instrumental pieces lightly in the background while they sleep. It’s helped us to be able to put them in the same room (background noise means one of them making noise doesn’t HAVE to wake the other up!) But also sets the tone for sleep. Turning the music on has become a cue to get them ready for some sleep. We usually just ask Alexa to play Disney Lullabies…but even packing Alexa with us wouldn’t help us on the no cell service portions of the trip. Luckily, Amazon Music will let you download playlists for playing offline. I made sure my phone had plenty of memory available and downloaded Disney Lullabies and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

Presents

I remember going on long car rides as a little girl with my family, and my mom would wrap us some little presents to be opened at various milestones along the way. They were small, new items special for the trip. A trip to the dollar store was in order! I’ve been waiting for an excuse to get my son these metal construction vehicles, so I splurged on one gift. Mostly though, we unwrapped glow sticks, sticker books and silly toys along the way. He loves unwrapping presents, so this was a hit. Although, next time, I should probably hide the stash a little better so he doesn’t find them all and unwrap everything all at once!

Favorite Things

Besides unwrapping a new set of construction vehicles, we brought along a few favorite vehicles as well. Favorite books, favorite blankie, favorite snacks, favorite pillow. We pulled out all the stops and tried everything we could think of to make this trip as smooth as possible.

Books

Just in case we needed to read while Mom was driving and Dad was sleeping or vice versa, we brought these. Reading is so important, and I don’t consider read-along books screen time. Our son loves pressing the buttons and gets so excited about mathing the corresponding button to the page. It’s more exciting reading time that keeps him busy (without me, if needed) for a while. And since he loves PJ Masks so much, we picked up a set of those too!

Screen Time

Seventeen hours in a car meant I was embracing screen time. Judge me if you want, but I wanted several options in my arsenal. As it turns out, he didn’t want to watch shows very often. Mostly, I used them to distract the toddler while I had to take care of the baby, and even that was after we had arrived at our destination.

Our vehicle doesn’t have a built-in DVD player, so besides downloading several episodes of favorites on the iPad, I purchased a portable DVD player that we hung in our organizer on the back of the seats. We stuck several older favorites in an old CD case and forced our kids into watching some of our favorite older Disney shows.

Car-Friendly Stuff

We ended up renting a car, and I really didn’t want to clean melted crayons off seats or something like that. So we made some substitutions. Instead of crayons and paper, we brought a magna doodle. Probably our best purchase for the trip was this lap desk so cars could drive right in front of him…while still buckled up! It gave our son a place to eat, play, and just hold all his treasures.

We Made It

Ladies and Gentlemen, we not only made it, sanely, to our destination, but as we neared the city limits, WE WERE GIGGLING & LAUGHING!! I don’t think there’s any sound more heavenly than your babies laughing and giggling, and for them to do it after more than 17 hours in the car, oh my! I was so proud of my two little guys and how good they are! What have you done to survive long car rides with kids?