A little Rhody vacation: Traveling with Preschoolers/Toddlers

Time is flying by, as it typically does in the summer months. Since I received a start date for my new job it seems like the days just tick by so fast. We have had a trip to RI planned for a few months and it ended up being a great way to end my 9 months of not working. After much research we decided to drive back to RI. Tom was able to take a full 2 weeks off from work and we knew that we needed more than 7 days to drive and have adequate time to visit RI. As the day of departure approached I was becoming more and more anxious about our drive up to RI. We decided to take a new route and we planned to drive roughly 8 hours each day for 2 days, stopping to spend the night in a hotel.  When we drove down and back from Florida in March, the boys did great. They did as well as expected for such a long ride. We did not plan as well and there were definitely a lot more stops and a lot more tears.

Here are my tips for what worked for us during our long ride.

Travelling with Toddlers/Preschoolers:

When I try to remember the specifics of that drive I mostly remember that I spent a majority of it sitting in the back seat and that I didn't want to do it again anytime soon. This is where my anxiety was coming from. This time I set out weeks before preparing for the journey. I found a lot of great ideas on Pinterest and was able to put together a survival basket for us. This site I used the most from, but a simple "traveling with preschoolers or toddlers" google search yielded lots of fun ideas for this trip and the future. The biggest hit came from the dollar store. I went out and bought a bunch of silly little toys (matchbox cars, a wiggly worm, Cars crayons, coloring book, and sticky bugs for the windows) and a few candy treats (M&M's and a ring pop). I wrapped each item individually in different color tissue paper and had them hidden in a basket in the front seat with me. After a long stretch in the car or after some really good behavior (no whining, no crying, etc). I would reach in and pick out a treat for Jack to open or give him a choice between 2 to pick one. He LOVED it! The best part-he didn't know how many there were so he never asked for more (until the ride back when he knew that there WERE more). I made up a bunch but only need to use 4 for the ride up and so I had a bunch left over for the ride back. It was perfect. I even ended up giving him quite a few in the last 2 hours before home, just to use them up and at a time when we ALL were getting so sick of being in the car.

I also added 3 new apps to our iPad that kept him busy for 4 hours each day in the car. It was crazy! I would allow him to have the iPad after lunch each day. I wanted him to learn that there were other ways to keep busy in the car and that looking out the window was one of the best ones. I will say that in the end, the iPad made the trip and I was so happy with the apps that I added. The best app I added was actually free too! It is called the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Road Rally appisode. It is an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but it is interactive and responses to verbal cues by the child as well as has them counting and shaking and moving the iPad. Jack literally watched it on repeat for hours. The other ones I added were called "Press Here" and "Bloki" (they were each under $2.00). Bloki was a fail, but Press Here got some good play time.

We used "The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band" only once during the ride and I acted out each song for the boys and Tom. I think Jack and Tom shook their heads in disgust at me, but Will ate it up! Whatever works!

I made up a canvas bucket of toys for both Jack and Will and put it on the seat in between them. This way they each could reach it and get toys on their own and change them when they were bored. Giving Will his blankie ended up being his saving grace and he sat quietly holding it, rubbing it and snuggling it while looking out the window or watching Jack be silly. We made sure to make adequate stops along the way and packed our cooler with good, nutritious food. We had a picnic at the rest stops and let the boys run in the grass.

All in all the trip went very smoothly and rejuvenated my confidence in traveling long distances with them. I only sat in the back seat for the last hour on the first 2 days and not at all on the ride home. Don't get me wrong, our trip did not go without ANY hiccups. Jack asked to stop to poop twice in the first hour the first day, the second stop leaving him and I in a Bojangles bathroom for the better part of a half hour. Tom actually was getting Will out of his seat when we emerged to come and check on us. It seemed like we would never get moving. On the way back to SC, just an hour shy of our stop for the first day, Jack got car sick and we had to do an emergency stop on the side of I-81 to clean him and the car seat up. As he stood behind the car with Tom in only his crocs and underwear he cried "Why am I standing here in crocs and undies.....I NEED PANTS ON!" Meanwhile I scrubbed the car seat down while crouched on top of the cooler with the wind whipping by me as tractor trailer after tractor trailer whizzed by. We managed to get everything cleaned and situated quickly and we were on our way again,  Jack feeling much better!