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Welcome to Ask the Village where all of us moms come together to share our best tips, tricks, advice, and support to one another so we can all be each other’s village!
Today’s question: how to survive long car rides with a toddler
Whether you’re road tripping or just taking a little drive but your toddler hates the car, these are all the best tips!! We have a 6+ hour road trip coming up this week, so I will definitely be putting a lot of these to the test.
More Ask the Village posts found here!
Here are all of the ideas:
Toy Recommendations:
- Hold off giving the toys until your little one needs them
- Toys just for the car
- New toys so they feel special – I grabbed this one for our trip!
- Sensory toys
- Books (pull tab or flap books highly recommended!)
- Busy board
- Dollar store surprises to unwrap every hour
- Water Wow
- Magna doodle
- Magnet games
- Drawing board
- Yoto player
Other Tips:
- Music/nursery rhymes
- Make a changing station for the trunk
- Tablet with shows loaded up
- SO many snacks (low mess!)
- Planning the trip around naps/bedtime
- Factoring in extra stops so your little one can get out and play (or ensuring a place to run around when you do bathroom stops) – use the Playground Buddy app!
- Play Ms. Rachel over the speaker like it’s the radio
- Have one parent sit in the back for stretches of the trip to read, play, give snacks (I will say though this one is kid dependent because my son def plays a lot better in the car if no one is back there with him!)
- Bring their fave blanket/lovey
- Lap tray for toys, drawing, etc.
- Use a portable sound machine for nap
- The Happy Song by Imogen Heap on repeat during meltdowns
- Put tablet in a ziplock and put it in the headrest in front of them so they can watch
Comment below if I left any out!! Good luck! I’ll report back if I learn any others.
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