Back Seat Bliss (Travelling with Children - Tips & Advice)

Name: Gaelic_Goddess

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Product:	Travelling with Children - Tips & Advice
Date:	01/10/01 (217 review reads)
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Last summer we organised the holiday of a lifetime to the Rocky Mountains. I was dreading it! Not the holiday, but the prospect of motoring across Colorado with three squabbling kids. We aimed to keep driving at a minimum, but in the open spaces of the West a six hour run is peanuts!

What's a parent to do when her oldest son and daughter can't bear to be in the same room together, let alone the same car. My daughter is prone to travel sickness and cannot sleep in a car, no matter how exhausted she is. My youngest son has a bladder the size of a pea. And my eldest son gets ratty if he doesn't get hourly burger feeds. Typical, I'm sure. But how do you keep all three happy, the parents sane and the driver able to concentrate on the road?

Over the years, we've worked out a few ploys that cost a lot less than a new car with thre rows of seats.

• Bring food, but don't expect them to eat anything healthy. Fruit drinks and water are better than fizzy drinks, which tend to erupt before you've had time to grab a sick bag, and also flow directly to (and out of) young bladders. Choose bottles with caps if you don't want to hold open sloshing Cola cans for three hours. And finally, bring something to clean sticky fingers and minimise pit stops. A good meal before leaving is a must.

• Even older kids enjoy story tapes, provided the tales have a decent, pacey plot. Be sure to choose tapes that give you an hour minimum. Many that come with short children's books only last 15 minutes and can be slow moving and simplistic. Tapes that contain a selection of stories or a novel are favourites with our children and can keep them quiet for miles. Song tapes appeal to the smaller ones.

• Bring action figures and stuffed toys.

• Throw in a couple of pillows and a duvet.

• If you have one child who gets along with everyone, place him or her between the warring
siblings as a buffer zone. If you only have two children use a pillow. Unfortunately it means everyones pal never gets a coveted window seat. Any day now our peacekeeper is sure to wise up and demand a change.

• Play CD Karaoke. We gave our eldest son a personal CD player in a bid to make him a more co-operative passenger. He came up with the idea to take turns at singing along to whatever was playing down the earphones. This game kept all three going for hours upon hours of spectacular Colorado scenery. The downside is that they only choose four songs, three of which were Britney Spears numbers! Be careful too, as your kids may want to turn CD Karaoke into a competitive game with parents awarding points for singing ability. This always descends into warfare!

• When the kids get bored singing and you've had it up to there with Britney, get them to rate the songs on the radio.

• Play Twenty Questions or 'I spy with my little eye'.

• Here's a good game if it's starting to get dark and you still have a long way to go. One player begins a story on a topic chosen by everyone else in the car. He/she must tell the story without using words beginning with two letters, the other players deciding the letters. For littler kids, I adapt the rules so that two particular words cannot be used. For example: a story about a birthday party without using the words cake or candles. The instant the player uses one of the forbidden words or letters, another player must take up on the narrative. The stories can go on and on. But hey, whatever keeps them happy!

• Bring a mini tape recorder. Do fake interviews and play them back again.

• If you have time, stop for a run-around in the fresh air. Vital for cooped-up toddlers.

• Do not sing 99 Bottles on the Wall! Ever!

• Make sure your car is reliable. Fighting kids are bad enough when the vehicle is mov
ing!

• Many parents swear by hand held computer games. Not owning any I can't really judge. We do have magnetic travel games, but the bits are so small, they get lost everywhere, and these games only seem playable under motorway conditions.

Thanks to tips gained over the years, car trips haven't been too bad recently. Bedlam for the first five minutes, then the kids settle down into grumpy resignation. It makes a nice change from holidays past when I'd return home with neck pain from swivelling round to give the evil eye to the little terrors in the back seat.

At least we're safely past flooded pants, or nappy stops, or bottle feeds in the dark in the middle of nowhere. It's even been a year since we've had to pull the car over and refuse to move until the bickering stopped.

Of course this is just a lull. Another year or two and we'll have three large, sulking teenagers fighting for space. maybe the car with three rows of seats isn't such a bad idea after all!!!

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