Long car trip with children

Amanda65

Quenastoise wrote: »

Elise: FYI Everyday life with my husband is a struggle and a strain and that does not even include a 10-hour trip !

Hi OP. Since my youngest was 3 we have been regularly travelling down to the South of France each summer, breaking the journey with an overnight stay en route and breaks every 2 hours (one for a quick loo break, the next slightly longer including a bit of a play and something to eat etc.) and they have always been absolutely fine - and that before the days of portable DVD players !! However I think from the quite above it might not be the 6 year old you are worried about being stressed in the car ............

belfastgirl23

Are you totally sure it's DS you're worrying about? I know you are probably thinking about him but reading between the lines it sounds like it's you dreading the trip that's the issue. Is your DH normally a bit intolerant of being stuck with DS for long amounts of time, especially if he's tired and grumpy? I'd say you need to make sure that your DH knows what he's in for, tell him you're more than willing to do the journey but that DS is likely to get a bit grumpy on the way and you don't want him blaming you for this. So then if/when he starts to do it, you can say 'this is what we talked about'. I would also be asking DH to come up with strategies for keeping DS entertained or for dealing with him if he does kick off a bit. To me, the main thing is that if he wants to do the journey, it can't be totally up to you to keep DS entertained and he needs to recognise this. Good luck!

jcr16

i would say lots of pit stops, take a foot ball, so can stop at a park etc.

for us travelling my two boys are fine. but my dd gets bored after a couple hours.she is easy to distrack, games like eye spy, colour car counting. how can spot games.

were thinking of doing trip to scotland skiing. were on isle of wight, so litrally one end of uk to the other. i think for us it would be best to break the travelling down over two days, and maybe so night time travelling. as the kids sleep really well in the car. then hubby and i can take turns to drive.

bylromarha

Tulip09 wrote: »

My parents gave us cameras

Fantastic idea. Will be using that one on our next long trip.

Tulip09

That was in the days where you went to the post office and sent them off to be developed But we had fantastic fun checking them all when we got the back and made a family night of it putting them into albums or making scrap books. My parents must have spent a small fortune of spools & developing over the years. My kids have digital cameras now much cheaper but takes a little fun out of seeing the mishaps and having to wait for the pictures.

LJM

my girls both pack a bag each they include ds's invaluble for travelling, books,pencils,paper anything they can sit happily playing with, we try not to make too many stops only if desperate we find it a lot easier just to focus and get there, from ours to my parent inlaws takes us 4 and half to 5 hours at a time but it does go suprisngly fast dont forget to take lots of snacky food bits/drinks plus i also pop in a pillow and blanket each in case they want to snuggle down

onlyroz

Taking a 6-year-old on such a trip should be fine - he's not a baby, after all, requiring nappy changes, breastfeeds and the like. I used to go on long trips as a young child - e.g. driving down from Yorkshire to catch a ferry in Plymouth, and it was all good fun. And that was well before the days of DVD players in the car, and when music was transported in a case full of cassette tapes.

eamon

Are we there yet!!!!!!!!!

creditcard123

We always tried to travel at night so the younger ones would sleep.
They are all getting older, youngest is 9:eek: now
They now watch dvds, play psp, ds or listen to mp3 and usually only fall asleep when we have half an hour to go.

Travelling when they were younger was easier I think...then again so was life:rotfl:

Quenastoise

Thank you to everybody for the helpful advice :kisses3: Will definitely check out the Preston East Premier Inn on the way up, somehow the trip always seems easier on the way back home !