This past Memorial Day, we planned to meet up with some good
friends of ours in Austin, TX
for the holiday weekend. We’ve known them for around 15 years and our families
had never gone on a vacation together. The guys planned on seeing Soundgarden on Saturday night and the
ladies and daughters planned on hanging out at the house we rented, grilling, shopping,
swimming, watching movies… whatever we felt like doing for the weekend.
Even though Austin is just up the road for us, we still
needed to pack and plan. Based on my experience, here are five things I would
recommend when travelling with your toddler on the road:
Play a kid friendly radio station. I have an iPhone and use the
Pandora app a lot. Sydney’s favorite stations are Yo Gabba Gabba and The Fresh
Beat Band. Letting her sing along to the tunes helps her cope with being
strapped into the car seat for hours.
Bring your toddler’s favorite (portable) toy or toys. For
us, the only "toy" that made sense was the iPad Mini that she and I share. (She
tried to bring 100 stuffed animals, but we made her put them back.) The drive
to Austin was a good 3 hours due to weekend traffic and pouring rain, so the
iPad kept her entertained during the portions of the drive she remained awake.
And don’t forget the charger!
Put toddler essentials in one bag. It helped me to have all
of Sydney’s “stuff” in a bag by itself, like diapers, wipes, bath stuff, hair
stuff, etc. If you have to stop, having everything in one location will be
easier than digging into your giant suitcase. Sydney has a rolling Minnie Mouse
bag that we used for her things. And she felt like a big girl rolling her own
bag around.
Pack snacks. Our trip was short. But on longer rides (like
to Lubbock to see our
families), we’ve had to pack more strategically… and take off around her sleep
schedule. But this go around, I packed a juice, filled a sippy cup full of
milk, cut up some apples, and had some crackers ready for the drive.
Stop often. When we went to Austin, traffic was horrendous
and the weather was miserable. We saw 3 jack-knifed semis, with one of the trucks losing control literally right in front of us. My leg was pretty tired from hitting the gas
pedal and then the brake. Consequently, we stopped 0 times… in 3 hours. Which
meant by the time we got to Austin, we needed to change her entire outfit and
let the car seat dry out as best as it could (in all that humidity.) So this
was a lesson learned for me. No matter what, stop. And bring sanitizer or sanitizing wipes. The public roadside bathrooms are usually nothing short of disgusting.
And there you have it. Five things that helped us get to
Austin with all of our sanity. And hopefully, this gives you some ideas as to
what will work best for you and your toddler if you haven’t gone on a road trip
yet.
Do you have tips for road trips that I didn’t include? I’d
love to hear them!
No comments:
Post a Comment