Hate it or love it… Road trips are bound to happen with your little ones. This past May, we took our first family road trip (as a family of 4) from our home in Michigan to visit family down in North Carolina. We had a successful 11 hour ride on the way to NC, however, on our way home, we ran into some hurdles. For a successful road trip, always be prepared for whatever life may throw at you! Easier said than done, believe me I know, as I was not prepared for some of the unexpected occurrences during our ride home, however, I hope my experience will be able to help prepare you even more for your future road trip!
Essentials
Majority of us have traveled in a car for many hours at some point in our life, and it goes without saying that the number 1 goal of keeping ourselves and our kids happy is comfort. The first few items on my list to pack that were readily available at all times were the girls’ blankets, stuffies, and pacifiers. Anything to help keep the girls calm and relaxed was going to help myself and my husband stay relaxed. The next item I made sure to have plenty of, of course, was snacks. I remember when I was growing up, the best part of our family road trips were the SlimJims, bags of candy & chips, and a cooler full of drinks. Since I was traveling with 2 children under the age of 2 and a half, the snacks were a little different than what I recalled, however, anything to keep them engaged and having the feeling of “something new” was beneficial. Along the lines of snacks, I made sure to have the girls’ water cups readily available and milk bottles for my youngest. As I am in the “baby” stage of life, diapers, wipes and extra outfits for the girls were critical.
Entertainment
We had to keep the girls engaged and having fun when they weren’t napping. To do so, we made a playlist with their favorite tunes. Some great examples that always seem to calm a fussy baby or ramp up the fun are:
- Baby Shark
- What does the fox say
- Danny Go! The floor is lava
- Danny Go! Sharks in the water
You will not be thanking me after your child has requested to listen to Baby Shark for the hundredth time, however, it does the job!
Another great option we used was portable DVD devices. These were easy to install and kept the kids entertained when they wanted a break from music, books and toys.
My girls love books. We picked up a few new ones prior to the trip so that they would be intrigued and read them more than once on the trip.
And last but not least, a few toys that are car friendly that can activate their senses and keep them busy for a while.
Emergency
As I alluded to in the beginning, our ride home from our trip wasn’t as peaceful as the way down. Instead of leaving at 4AM like we did on the way to North Carolina, we decided to take our time getting up in the morning, feeding the girls a hearty breakfast and ended up hitting the road around 8:30 AM. We started off on a positive note with the girls starting a movie, however, about 2 and a half hours into the drive home, our youngest became very fussy. Like any mom would do, I hopped in the back seat to try and give her a bottle and some snacks, which did help for about 30 minutes, however, she then began to vomit. Since I was still sitting back with the girls, I was able to “catch” majority of the mess within a blanket. This unfortunate incident enforced stop number one earlier than planned to get ourselves cleaned up, which leads me to some crucial items you should have on any road trip:
- GROCERY BAGS/TRASH BAGS
- CLOROX WIPES
- PAPER TOWEL
- HAND SANITIZER
Luckily we had all of these items handy and were able to clean up the car seat, car, and my youngest daughter fairly quickly, however, we were not prepared for what was bound to happen approximately 2 hours after that particular incident…
As you can imagine, I was in need of some fresh air after the vomiting event and asked my husband to crack the windows… BIG MISTAKE. As my husband was cracking the windows, the right rear window dropped completely and would not go up. We pulled over and tried to fix ourselves with little to no knowledge of what could possibly have happened as this was a new vehicle, however, we determined we were going to have to drive the remaining 6 hours with no right rear window. We ended up moving my youngest’s car seat to the middle seat and I sat in the back by the open window, which leads me to my next list of crucial items:
- Extra Blankets: We did not have enough blankets to keep me warm. Even though it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside, with 70 mph winds rushing against you, it doesn’t feel too hot.
- Sweatshirt: Same reason as the above. I was so cold I had my husband turn the heat on and found a pair of his sweat shorts that I used as a sweatshirt.
- Good sense of humor and a positive attitude
In situations where you cannot control the outcome, you have to just laugh about the bad and be thankful for the good. I may have come home from this road trip with undesired wind burn, however, I wouldn’t have given up the memories and laughs we made during it. I hope sharing a few of my experiences and “must haves” will be useful for you and your family in the future!