Long car rides with children

[milano]

So, the kids and I are going to TN later this month for a big family reunion. MH can't go with us. It's a ten hour drive not including stops or inevitable summer road construction. I'm trying to decide whether to just knock the drive out in one day or break it up and stop halfway for the night. Realistically, we'd have to stop every 3 hrs at least- maybe even closer to 2-2 1/2 hrs for M to eat. I'm guessing that including stops and some minor traffic we're looking at a minimum of a 13-14 hour travel day. That's a really long day with a 5 month old and 3 year old. Just thinking about that makes me want to cry a little bit. They're both really good car riders for like three-four hour trips. M has never gone farther than that, and J hasn't been on a trip that long in a couple years.

If I do it all in one day then my mom or sister can ride with me. I don't know that their schedules will permit them to leave a day early so we can stop for the night. But I feel like me traveling along with two kids and staying overnight in a hotel seems kind of unsafe? Maybe not even unsafe but just really complicated. I have to do the drive back in one day because Jay starts preschool the day after we come back. As of now we're leaving on a Thursday and coming back on a Monday, and I feel like the kids will be exhausted after the weekend so the trip home shouldn't be too bad.

Ugh. Please share anecdotes, travel tips, opinions, whatever.

[charlotte]

I think 13-14 hours sounds pretty conservative if the drive is already 10 hours with no stops.

I would do it all in one day with your mom or sister riding along. It's really ideal to have that other adult along. We just did a 11 hr (before adding stops) road trip a few weeks ago and the adult in the passenger seat had practically a full time job navigating, passing stuff back and forth to the toddler, etc. Also, in the unfortunate event of car trouble or other problems it would be really crappy to be alone with the two kids.

[Dramaphile]

I drove 4 hours by myself with Nugget when she was maybe 6 months old and it was rough. She slept a good couple of hours, and then freaked out and wouldn't nurse when we stopped at a rest stop, I ended up having to pump in the rest top eating area (shielding myself with a sweatshirt) so I could give her a bottle because my boobs were crazy full and she was losing her mind. Finally got a bottle in her and she fell asleep again for a while, then woke up less than an hour later and screamed the last 30 minutes of the ride.

I would not recommend going by yourself if you have another option, just to have a second adult to help hand snacks and toys out, bottle-feed the baby if necessary, watch the kids while you get food/go to the bathroom/stretch your legs, and trade off driving if you need a break.

[mapleme]

DH's used to do long car trips with his parents as a kid and they would leave around 2 am so that the kids would sleep off a large part of the trip. Personally, as a night owl, I would do something like that, but nighttime. So, aim for the last 5ish hours to be after bedtime.

The longest drive I've done with both kids was 5 hours. We headed off midmorning to catch C's morning nap and went about 2 hours (we would have kept driving if C hadn't woken up, but the border always wakes her up). The next stretch was an hour and a half and then the last hour and a half was brutal because it was about 30 minutes too long. IME each leg has to be shorter than the last. Videos on the iPad help immensely with the older kid, but once a baby decides that they want out, there isn't much you can do but hope that they nap for the next stretch.

[stringy]

I second having someone with you. I did like 6 hours with just P and if I hadn't had a helper to pass out snacks and mainly sit with her while I peed it would have sucked. Let alone driving the whole thing.

[mc13]

We do lots of 6-8 hour drives and honestly, by myself with the girls, driving more than 6 hours in a day is almost too much. Driving is exhausting and adding two+ kids into the mix makes it even more exhausting. And that doesn't even take into account that you haven't had a full nights rest in like 3 years. I would rather stop for the evening than push it to do it in 1 day. I would try to find a popular location to stop in and be sure to arrive before early evening so there's lots of daylight once you get in.

If you have a second driver, it's more realistic to do in 1 day. That way, you can switch off and maybe even close your eyes for a bit to rest for the next leg of the trip.

[critter015]

I've shared with the class before that we do a trip from OK to CA a couple of times a year. It is 20+ hours of driving and we go straight through with stops every 3ish hours, and sometimes we stop for a few hours during the night so DH can sleep in the car. Your trip definitely sounds doable to me, especially if you have someone else with you When the kids were a little younger I packed a ton of toys, but really they are perfectly fine as long as they have their DVD player and lots of movies and a million snacks. I have the same worries about doing a trip like that + overnight in a hotel by myself. I considered doing the CA trip earlier this summer without DH but needing to do an overnight stay by myself worried me too much.

[mathrun]

I would do it in one day with a helper along with you. We did two 10 hour days followed by a 4 hour day this summer. It wasn't awesome but we survived.


Buy some new cheap stuff at the dollar store / Target dollar spot to hand out when they are bored.

Lots and lots of snacks and water

Bring favorite music and DVDs if you have a portable DVD player

When you stop try to get everyone out and moving around for 10 minutes or so before you get back in.

Get a portable potty chair if you have any littles that have been trained for less that a year. Seriously, I guarantee you'll have at least one emergency and won't be able to get to a rest stop.

Come up with some car games like a list of things to find while you drive (school bus, police car, red truck, swing set, etc.)

[milano]

Aug 5, 2017 10:24:53 GMT -6 @criscosalad said:

milano hold off on pushing the potty training now until after the trip if it's in the ear future.

Only kind of kidding

This has crossed my mind, the trip could turn into twenty hours with stopping to pee constantly. Luckily(?) he's barely been going on the potty at all lately because he "just likes to go in my pull-up".

[sherminator]

I would drive most of it at night.