Don’t. Haha, I kid I kid…maybe 😉
Seriously though this past weekend we took quite the drive and with two very active kids and an equally active dog, it was quite the adventure. I’m going to just keep referring to it as an adventure because that is the positive spin that I can put on what those 8 or so hours were.
{Disclaimer: they weren’t actually all that bad. Only about 1 hour of it total was pushing our limits}
In all reality, it wasn’t the worst. We plugged a DVD player in for our oldest and while that wasn’t enough to keep him occupied, it did enough so that when he was starting to get fed up it was “minimal” and short lived. I totally get his frustration, because who likes to be cooped up in a car for a long period of time? Even if you like road trips, like the idea of jumping in a car and just going (which we do), it does get tedious after a while. It also is hard on your body and being in a carseat restrains the ability to stretch out or change position even more.
For our younger son, it was the first time that he was really “alert” for a trip like this. The last time we took a road trip like this was Thanksgiving time period and he was a) still in the infant bucket car seat and b) still taking a decent amount of naps/less likely to be fussy with the lack of the ability to move around. For this trip, he is definitely more alert, more mobile, and more vocal in his “displeasure”. He still takes two good chunky naps though, so that was on our side. Honestly, overall he did really great! He just cruised along, snoozed when he wanted, cried out for toys or food, and just watched the dog settle, and the traffic go past.
We did get out of the car for about 15 minutes or so when we only had a couple hours of driving time left. It seems like this is around the time that the boys are just completely fed up and done with carseats, the car, and traveling. Getting out, walking around, getting changed seems to always do the trick. We all get back in the car ready to get the last couple hours done.
On the whole, it seems that this whole car ride bit is manageable for us and I feel much better about the next couple car rides we’ve got coming up this summer.
So what I have I learned from our latest adventure? That going with the flow is really the majority of what you can do in these situations. Kids are more resilient than you think. And that even though moments may push your limits, looking at the bigger picture, knowing that there is an end, can be all you need to get through the rest.
A Cuppa Cosy 