Travelling toddler and tantrums help!!!!!

[zwan87]

My pop passed away today and the funerals in two days (Super efficient family), I have to travel alone with my 14mnth old on a six hr trip which Im dreading because he is so terrible in the car mainly because he cant stand being restrained, too bad lol.

Any ideas on how you travel with your toddlers would be much appreciated.....

[Miss H]

How about during his sleep time? Or try a DVD player if that will keep him busy. They work with my DD2 who is 17 months. Good luck!

[Santosha]

Kids music to sing along to
Bag of new toys and things to fiddle with (doesn't have to be anything fancy, your $2 shop or op shop should be able to provide lots of random novelties!)
Snacks that take a long time to eat like rusks or cruskits
Give him a torch to play with - my DD LOVES hers so I save it for emergencies to keep the entertainment value!
Imitation games - get him to try and copy the noises you make and copy the ones he makes.

Sorry for the loss of your Pop and good luck with the car trip.

[Saffi]

Sorry to hear of your grandfather's passing. Is driving at night a possibility when he'd normally be asleep? With toys make sure they are on strings or attached to something so they can be retireved easily while you are still driving. My DS is always losing things over the side of his seat and the tantrums which follow are horrendous. GL

[Kazbah]

We drive to Brisbane from Melbourne regularly. What we've found works : leave really early (pre-dawn) and leave child asleep / in night nappy as long as possible. Have drinks ready to go with food as soon as possible. Stuff like cut-up apple, dried fruits etc that take a while to eat.

You may hate McDonalds, but seriously, their playgrounds are about 2 hours apart on most major highways. Even if you just grab a coffee there, take the time to stop & play. Plus if you go for the kids' meal (water / apple pieces & nuggets work best for us) then they are great to eat on the drive, and there's a toy there to play with. Something like a magnadoodle is great to draw with - it's big and hard to drop, everything's attached to it. We only got a DVD player for the last trip when Pip was 2 yrs 9 months. Even that becomes "white noise" after a while.

Good luck, and I'm so sorry to hear about your grandfather.

[zwan87]

Thanks for all your posts i ended up having to stop over at a hotel for the night. I left at 6pm hoping he would sleep the whole trip we made it 3/4 of the way before he had a meltdown and it just wasn't worth making him go any further, but it did break the bank! The way home was much easier I left at 1 in the arvo and made it home.