road trips with littlies

I know that we've had this topic before and I did a search but I couldn't find it.

DH and I are going away with the boys (2yo & 8mo) in about a week. We're goung to South West Rocks which is about a 6 hour drive (I'm expecting it to take longer with such young passengers). If anyone has any advice on how to make the journey a little less stressful for al of us I'd love to hear it.
I was thinking of taking a portable DVD player for Yasin but then I thought it through a bit and I thought it might make him car sick like reading does for me.

I would definately think about taking a DVD player as well as toys or books and stopping every 2 hours near play equipment ;) Wear him out...

Yep, ditto what Christy said. I would love a DVD player for our car sometimes LOL. Plus colouring in books, or better still, a magnadoodle or doodlepro to take, that way he wont lose pencils etc. Even a 15 minute break is enough to keep them satisfied for the next stretch of driving, or time your stop times around meal times too, so you aren't stopping that frequently. Or depending on the time you plan on leaving, if it is late afternoon, the boys should fall asleep for the last part of the trip anyway (hopefully she says ;) )

We've done a heap of driving with the kids. We try and time it so sleep time is soon after we leave, stop after 2 1/2 to 3 hours when Lucie wakes for something to eat and a quick play in a park (and feed Ned!) and then another 2 1/2 to 3 hour stint. It works pretty well - I usually sit in the back between the kids and play with Lucie if she starts getting bored. I just take a bag with some toys she hasn't seen for a while and snacks, make sure I have plenty of water for her too and we are usually all pretty happy!

We're doing the 12hr trek to the Gold Coast in 2 weeks!

We bought a DVD player at the Toys R Us sale just for the trip. I think with reading it's more about the looking down position that makes you feel sick, where with the DVD player has a strap to attach it to the backrest.

Here are some of the other things we've done in the past - we've done 12hr trip to VIC when he was 8 months old & 15hr trip to QLD when he was 10 months old.
* Leave early, try to get them in the car while they're still asleep, in their PJs before normal wake up time. This way you'll be out of Sydney by the time they usually wake up. Stop for brekkie & a little run around.
* Take lots of snacks.
* Only take out 1-2 toys at a time & have others where they can't be seen so it's a surprise when they come out. Maybe even buy a new toy he doesn't know about as a nice surprise. Definitely keep the favourites til a last resort!
* Don't put on any kids music until he starts getting cranky. This will buy a little sanity time for you guys before having to listen to the Wiggles for hours on end LOL.
* I'm not sure how logistically it would work with 2 car seats, but sometimes having mummy or daddy hope in the back will buy you a bit more time.

One thing we had a big issue with was poos. Zander would get quite hysterical and scream when he needed to go as it was hard with him sitting & not able to move. We stopped on the side of the road a few times just to allow him to stand upright in the back of the car so he could do his poo easier.

My folks live 3 hours away by car but it takes us 4 hours. We always leave at nap time, on the way home last trip he slept for more than 2 hours! We always stop at a park too, not only for nappy change but so he can stretch his legs, we sometimes stop at the shops or something instead, just to take his mind off things.

We have a DVD player too and it really is a life saver, we use it for the end of the trip though, we he gets cranky. He has his leapfrog with him with he plays with for ages or the passenger will read him a book or ten.

Plus take lots of water and food and a wet washcloth in a plastic bag...

My husband and I drove from central QLD to Darwin ealier this year with our almost 7 year old 2 years and a bit and a 8 month old . I was stressing big time but really the boys were awesome. We took a DVD player but only put it on after our lunch break stop. In my opinion with a 6 hour trip some toys and plenty to drink and snack on you should be fine. I did take some baby einstein for our 8 month old when he became a little cranky and we simply were unable to stop and that kept him happy..

Goos Luck and travel Safe :):)

Forgot to mention as well... We bought for $12 from the Reject Shop a little craft table thing - it looks like a shoulder bad you strap it to the front seat & it opens up to be a table. It's great, inside is a little pack of crayons & pencils + some paper. We're going to stock it up with lots of fun stuff which should help too.

:bump: (I luuuuurve reviving ancient threads)
We're doing a Brisbane - Melbourne round trip with lots of stops but still some long stretches. I'm going to need quite the arsenal. Not that keen on the DVD thing, will consider LeapPad etc, although all the different cartridges, tag books etc are giving me a headache!

Also, ideas for CDs. Kids have never heard of the Wiggles.

play school cds won't do your head in as much as a wiggles cd.

i had to double take when i read Zazou was asking about little bubbas.

We did Melbourne to Gold Coast last year, kids were 4 and 8 months. We had DVD players but we limit the use so it's a novelty and therefore successful. DD1 has an iPod shuffle with headphones, she loved it - we got her to choose her music before we left and had the volume down so she could still hear us talking to her (you can set the maximum volume via your PC). It would have driven me crazy listening to kids music non stop! I drew up a Spotto game and we played that, lots of talking about what we were seeing. I had a box of toys and books in the backseat for easy access and a bag of snacks.

We stopped every 2-3 hours on average. Made sure we all got out of the car and had a run around. Take a ball to kick around.

We did it over three days, covered between 500-700 ks each day and made sure we were on the road around 5am each morning so the kids stayed asleep for a bit. Our kids are well used to long road trips and are very patient but we knew this one would be a stretch and they did really well.

We went from Melbourne to Gold Coast 3.5 years ago with a 4yo, 2yo and 14month. Dd gets carsick but is better with the DVD on as it keeps her head up and focused on the player instead of looking out the window. We also had a bag with toys, books and drawing boards to keep them occupied. We do lots of trips now and they are pretty good at keeping themselves occupied.

I did Melbourne to Sydney 7 hrs one day 3 hrs the next and then the return 5 days later with a 3yr old and 1 yr old and my mum. I don't like DVD players in cars as would prefer them to sleep so we armed ourselves with CD audiobooks from library, and story podcasts (BBC has great interactive ones), the stories are not so bad as just kids music. But for less drive you mad kids music 'They might be giants' have a few good kids ones. They slept listened and did I spy (well DD did) and we just stopped whenever seemed appropriate. Mine both will sleep just due to boredom in car, (just like I did) and I think is a great skill to have so aim to foster that as long as possible. I get car sick if try do anything but drive in car, so I haven't tried books or toys etc, but the dropping of them puts me off (have done 4 hr drives on own with them and if on own dropped things a real pain :-))

I did nsw to nt with a 5yr old a 3 yr old and a newborn. So a little different in age, we had a travel box for the older 2 filled with masks (to colour) sticker notepads, books, colouring pages, crayons and pencils some sensory toys like the squishy things (technical name right there lol) and bubbles the box fit comfortably on their laps or on the floor at their feet. We also had DVDs and bop it the game :) the kids really weren't interested in DVDs or bop it unless it got dark. It was their travel box all the way 3 days solid in the car and it was the best!

I've done NSW-WA a few times now. With & without a DVD player - I definitely prefer with! - with new movies they haven't seen yet, so they didn't get too bored. Colouring books & pencils, diaries for the older girls to write where we'd been & what we'd seen that day (5-6 day trip with 1 driver). I loaded up on apps/games on my ipod & phone too.

I used the pocket things you hang on the back of the front seats, so everything was in reach. Plenty still ended up on the floor, but it makes life easier. Mine also collected bits & pieces at different stops too. Sometimes just a rock, or stick... or a lizard spine :/ but that gave them something to play with til the next stop. We left the 'booby book' at the rest area it was found at though...

Its very different crossing a desert though, the more to entertain them the better!

We just did newcastle to Gold Coast last week and my kids didn't have much at all. The girls had their dolls and some books and ds2 had his iPad. We stopped a couple of times and that helped break the trip up but my kids are pretty good travellers and enjoy looking around and when they're not, they're sleeping.

We've got a 9.5 hour plane ride coming up in a few hours' time...

My dearest beloved sister is putting together two packages, one for each boy, with a book, a small toy and some proper kids' sized headphones.

We'll also have our laptop with some million of episodes of Peppa Pig, Octonauts, etc ... and I assume there'll be some movies on the planes' service.

And we'll have snacks.

Any other ideas?

Wine. For you :) not the kids... I think that's illegal?

PN - Sticker books, colouring/activity books and pencils, particularly ones they haven't seen before, iPad/phone with plenty of kiddie games to keep them amused (along with a charger if it's possible lol)
Good luck! :)

This time last year I did Canberra-Grafton (overnight stop) - murrwillumbah on my own with our then 20 month old. At that stage he was waking around 4 ish for a feed then sleeping till around 6:30. When he'd had " Boobie juice" I popped him back to his cot went and fed up the horses and dogs and put final things in car ( which was packed the night before ) then fed him again and off we went.
I had lots of toys he could reach and we stopped when we felt like it. I handed him snacks too. If he dropped something important I pulled over.
We are used to long trips and at 2.8 he's just done a similar trip again but with my parents helping with entertainment .
We don't have a car DVD player but generally don't watch much tv anyway. I forgot all our music this trip so we have chatted and sung songs and watched trucks ,roadworks and caravans and bridges .
If you can be a little flexible and use sleep to your advantage it's actually easy . I love exploring parks in little towns so lots of playtime works . If it's raining the Golden Arches playgrounds are ok but sadly the food is a bit average compared to homemade .
I have to admit a plane flight over 3 hours would scare me due to lack of running around space . I reckon I'd try to fly at night.