6 Hacks for Making Road Trips with Young Children a Bit Easier for Their Grown Ups

I remember taking road trips with my mom and dad when I was little (don’t ask–there’s no way I’d mention how long ago that was). One year we drove the open road to Wyoming. Now, we didn’t have a station wagon, but for some reason a station wagon is in my memories. And this memory is so clear, that I’m sure it’s true. We must have borrowed it or rented it for the trip. I still have the images of my brother and I sitting in the back of the station wagon. And not the seat behind the driver’s bench seat either. I mean the most coveted seat of childhood: the backward facing third row. It was the best drive of my life.

I can still conjure up that panic at being one hundred percent positive that wild west robbers were going to jump out from behind some rocks in the Badlands of South Dakota (because robbers were pretty much the baddest people I could imagine at that point). I can still remember the wonder at seeing my great uncle removing his false teeth at a campground one night, and I can feel the stiff warmth of the matching red sweatshirts my parents bought for my brother and I when we got too cold at Yosemite National Park.

The point is, roadtrips can have a lasting impression on little people. It’s so easy (minus the cost) to put little people on planes to arrive safely and, relatively, swiftly to the “real” destination. But with road trips, that destination is just the place to turn around. Roadtrips really are about the journey. The problem is…sometimes that journey can get a little tough. And rough. Think the fresh scent of chocolate milk spilled in car seats, the sound of sunglasses trampled by little feet climbing out at rest stops, and the sight of, well, not the floor in front of the passenger seat since that’s filled with, let’s call it…stuff (every one else’s stuff). The thing is, it doesn’t have to be like this, at least not all the time. We’ve come up with a few hacks that help us maintain a sense of sanity during those car travel days (albeit that sense of sanity may seem fleeting at times…) (Links to items found at the bottom of this post.)

Keep A Long Stick Within Reach:

Whenever my little people lose a toy to the depths of the dark world that is under the couch in our playroom, I have to get down with a broomstick and usher out any and all of their little friends who got away. I also apply this award-winning technique to finding lost necessary items that have found their way to the dark, unreachable (usually) portions of our car. We always keep a few magic wands on hand, courtesy of Disney’s Cinderella’s Castle restaurant. They’re the perfect length and the tips of the stars work wonders when I have to dig around the car for a lost pet.

Imagine this: it’s nearing the middle little’s nap time. But he doesn’t want to nap. He’s angry. Really angry. And his dear, sweet giraffe lovies make him feel tired when he doesn’t want to be tired. So what’s a little person to do? That’s right. Chuck them. Throw them right between the carseat and the door so that nobody can reach them. And then, like clockwork, the tired middle little cries because he misses said lovies. (Ever tried teaching the life lesson of thinking through the consequences of actions to a tired, trapped little person when on a road trip? Not saying I’ve done it, but I wouldn’t recommend it.) This is where the magic wand comes into play. With a little stretch, I can snag those lovies on the tip of a star and give them back to those desperate, regretful, waiting little arms. It’s simply not practical to stop continuously to grab something that fell out of reach. But, let’s face it, things are constantly falling out of reach. We keep a magic wand in the car to ensure that we can retrieve all those “essentials” that slip into our car’s black holes. If there’s no wand available, we’ve discovered cheap back scratchers help stretch and grab too!

Take Tiny Condiment Cups:

So, yes, these are helpful when we dole out, well, condiments, but it goes far far beyond this. It is the perfect size for all treats and snacks that we pick up along the way. Because we try to get the little people out of the car to stretch their legs often, we usually end up at some random roadside attractions (think the biggest Christmas store in the South or a store filled with Georgia peaches) that always culminates in the purchase of a delicious little treat. But I’m not crazy. There’s no way I’m giving a bunch of sugar to three little people who are strapped into five point harness seats a mere two feet behind me. With the little condiment cups, I can dish out a small amount and hand it to them. They have something that makes it feel special (a “just their size” cup), and I don’t have to deal with trying to get a half eaten bag of sugar back from their clenched paws. The added bonus is that if it’s chocolate or it’s sticky, they have somewhere to place their special little treat, so it doesn’t melt in their sweet, sweaty little hands or muddy up their car seats (and yes, they’re recyclable).

Keep a Collection of Lollipops Handy:

Now, as I think I made clear above, I do not condone doling out oodles and oodles of candy and sugar to trapped little people (I don’t even condone it when they’re free to run through wide open spaces), but there is still something to be said for the lollipop. Yes, it is sticky. And yes, a good portion of it ends up in my little people’s hair. And honestly yes, I hate that all the dirt and dust in the world then sticks to the sticky places on their hands, and faces, and clothes, and carseats, and car windows, and really, anything that comes within reach. But I’ll tell you something. I’d rather spend four minutes scrubbing with a baby wipe than letting a little person fall asleep right before we make a stop. So, when I turn around and I see that glazed look (the one that I would pray to see most times if I were a praying person), I unwrap a lollipop faster than I can say my own name and stick it right in that little person’s mouth. Now they are awake and quite pleased. And they can stretch their legs with the rest of the family and then slumber away that extra sugar once they get back in their freshly baby-wiped carseat, draped with freshly baby-wiped lovies. And we can all be at peace.

Containers of a Variety of Sizes Are Magic:

The thing about having three littles who are still too little to sit in a back row alone is that there is nowhere for them to put their stuff. It’s either their laps (ha! ha! pretty funny joke, no?) or the floor. So, the floor it is. As a parent of three little traveling people, that means turning around to dig for a coloring book, a pack of crayons, a small doll, a car, stickers, books, snacks. (I’m just going to end that list there, but it could get bigger.) So, what becomes most important to me during road trips is keeping every little’s little things organized so I can spend as little time twisted around and digging. I manage this by giving each little a scrapbooking container. It’s a bin that clips shut and has a handle on the long edge. The little people stick whatever they want in them for the trip (within reason, and honestly, I usually chose most of what goes in there-I mean, they’re little). I then stack these upright on the floor behind me. Whenever a little person wants something from their bin, I reach around, grab the handle of said little’s bin, bring it to my lap, and shuffle it’s contents until the item is found. Then it gets shut and slid back into place. Nothing gets lost. There’s no digging. It is easy peasy. Just the way this momma likes it.

We also use standard art trays with a small three inch lip as our everything lap trays. We’ve tried a number of ways to create a solid workspace for the little people. We’ve bought the trays designed to strap behind carseats, but they seem to be too pliable and just fold up on themselves, creating an uneven surface. It’s like trying to draw or eat on a pillow. But with the art trays, the “lap” is hard, solid, and smooth. The littles put their food on them, they dump their crayons into them when they color, they vroom their cars around them. They even use playdoh on them (yep, you heard me right-this momma brings playdoh in the car for the desperate moments). And the bins just sit on the floor within arm’s reach until I need to grab one to hand out. I don’t have to wrap it around or clip it in. It’s simple. And, as I’ve stated, that’s just the way I like it.

Clips, Straps, and More Clips:

Stroller straps are genius. Ab.So.Lute. Genius. I can’t explain how dark my life would be without them (so not really, but still, they are amazing). There are so many lovies that have been saved from certain death by stroller straps. Imagine the discontinued lovie being lost in the streets of Japan. For sure I would send my husband out in the teeming rain to walk the two miles through snaking streets in order to find that thing. I’m not saying I actually did send him out. But a solid stroller strap would have prevented such an event. If it did actually happen. Anyway, this applies to road trips too. When my tiniest of littles gets tired, he throws his lovie in protest. He is angry and wants nothing to do with it. Until he does. And there are those times that with his backward facing carseat, I simply cannot reach that thing without practically escaping my own seat belt, smacking my head on the DVD player, elbowing my biggest little, and finally reaching it with the wee tips of my fingers. It’s one place my magic wand can’t quite get to because the tiny guy grabs that wand and yanks it around any time it’s near him. So I just attach that lovie with a strap. And when he feels ready to face the certain sleep that the smell of that lovie brings him, he finds it himself. (Same can be said for the pacifier clip.)

Beyond stroller straps, I have been known on occasion to employ binder clips to help me out. The mirror used to view the rear-facing baby is slipping down-that’s fine. I’ll binder clip that. What my sweet big little? You can’t color properly because your coloring book won’t stay open and normally you wouldn’t care but since you’re a bit tired it is a big deal to you? Fine. I’ll binder clip that. You want your snack bag to stay on your lap next to your seat belt rather than slip around? No problem. I’ll just binder clip that. If it can be clipped into place. I’m clipping it.

Trunk Drawers:

Last holiday season we took a little road trip all 1100 miles to grandma’s house. We had a nice, compact overnight bag packed that we pulled out at each stop so we didn’t have to unload all the other items in the van. All the other millions and millions of items: Presents. Bikes. Suitcases. Presents. And more presents. Oh, and wine, lots and lots of wine. So, on the final day of our drive, when all the contents of the easily accessible overnight bag were full of road trip grime, my middle little spilled his water. All over his shirt. Needless to say, he was not excited or even content with being wet. The child cried. Fortunately, I keep a set of three little plastic drawers in the back of our van. And in one magic drawer I keep a complete set of clothes (head to toe, all weather) just for these occasions (to be honest, I keep it in their whether I’m going to grandma’s or I’m going to Target). A quick pull over, change of outfits, which I accessed through just a slide of a drawer, and we were off. The same thing happened again on our most recent trip to Washington DC. It was the first warm day of the season and we stopped in Annapolis for some water views and ice cream (yummmmm…). I let the little people eat their sweet treats in their strollers.  My mistake. It had been so long since it was warm, I must have forgotten what happens to ice cream in 85 degree whether. So, before all the littles crawled back in the van, it was a quick costume change courtesy of the stash of clothes in the trunk drawers.

So, I keep three sets of drawers. What do I keep in those other magic drawers you ask? One drawer has some extra diapers, wipes, and medicines for the little people because who knows when disaster can strike and in what form. And the other drawer has sunscreen and raingear for those unexpected stops along the way. Now there’s no more searching through bags in parking lots or running from shady spot to shady spot in parks. We’ve got it all available (perhaps even more available than those items would be in the chaos that is our home).

With each new road trip it gets easier and easier to get organized and stay sane. It’s about being prepared and anticipating trouble. Actually, I just wrote that because I thought that’s what it should say. Really, it’s about being ok when things go in ways that can’t be predicted, knowing that it’s impossible to anticipate all the trouble. Because, well, kids. I just tell myself that these moments are memories. And who knows when they’re going to have their back seat of a station wagon trip.

For more tips on how to survive a road trip with younger children, check out Five Trips for Preparing for a Road Trip with Little People.