Top tips for road trips with a toddler

I took my first long distance drive with just me and the two year old last week. I had my heart set on doing the five hour drive from DC to NC to visit my mom, which was ambitious considering Rae hasn’t been in the car for long periods of time lately, and for most of her life, she’d scream bloody murder after being confined to her car seat for longer than 20 minutes. Road trips were out of the question until recently because she’s older, more tolerant and well, COVID-19 makes it hard for me to casually get on a plane, so we didn’t have many options. I’m usually not one for road trips. I suffer from severe nausea and long road trips don’t agree with me. BUT I was determined to make this work, and so we did, which lots of planning tips from my sister circle (Lachelle and Kia – don’t know what I’d do without you) and the Hampton U Mommies Crew.

All in all, the trip wasn’t bad at all! I took the good advice I was given and figured out some tips and tricks along the way. Here is my ultimate list of must dos and must haves to set the tykes up for success if you are planning a road trip.

1. Plan out your rest stops in advance

Since we are still knee deep in a pandemic, keep in mind that all of your usual fast food restaurants may not be open for you to use the restroom as a pit stop before you order a meal. And rest stops can be about 25-50 miles away from each other. Plan out when you may need to gas up, change a diaper and rotate in new games or toys for your child. I picked a rest stop that had an open grassy area so she could run around and stretch her legs for a moment before finishing the final leg of the trip.

2. Have a variety of entertainment on deck

I loaded up on a combination of digital and old school activities to keep Rae entertained for the entire trip. Here were the essentials:

Kindle Fire:  I loved that I could download her favorite games, TV shows and nursery rhymes so I wasn’t dependent on wifi for them to work. The battery lives for about 7-8 hours, so I wasn’t worried about it dying mid-trip.

Mess-Free markers and paper: I love these markers more than Raegan I’m sure. If she wants to try to mark up the car seat, I don’t care because the ink will only show on the paper it comes with. Not a new product, but I love the concept especially for a road trip when I can’t monitor every stroke of the pen she makes.

Little figurines for a puppet show: Rae loves to play pretend anything, so I made sure there were a few plastic and stuffed toy animals around so she could zone out and make up conversations between the animals. This went on for about an hour of the trip, and is another nice break from screentime.

Snacks: This is so important, there’s a section for it below.

3. Ration out the entertainment

I learned this one the hard way. Before we left home, I positioned each and every game, device and toy around my daughter so she would have easy access to everything she wanted. I thought, welp, I’ll be driving so she can select what she wants when she wants it. She had her Kindle Fire loaded up, four different stuffed animals, mess free pens and paper, juice, a snack, and small stuffed animals. She played with everything in the first hour and was looking at me like, “what else ya got, I’m bored.” We later stopped at a fast food restaurant to get a light lunch, and a little plastic, do-nothing toy was included in the kid’s meal. She was entertained by this cheap pop up toy for at least 45 minutes LOL. So going back, I rationed out the toys. I passed her one new toy or activity about every 45 minutes to an hour. That way, the entertainment stayed fresh and there was a new adventure for her before she could think of being bored.

4. Prep your car to be as comfortable as possible

Although we didn’t use it the entire ride, this portable desk was a lifesaver. It gave my daughter a stable place to hold her Kindle, color or draw, and eat her snacks. I don’t think half of her activities would’ve been possible without a sturdy desk. I loved this one because it has a no-mess wipe off surface and a cup holder attached.

5. Pack lots of snacks!

This is obviously important for anyone going on a road trip, and even more important if you are traveling with kids. I packed small portions of a variety of treats I knew she loved in snack size baggies, so I could easily pass her a small snack while driving. The snack size bags are important so IF she happened to drop the bag, there’s only but so much that can fall out of her hands. Mini rice cakes, veggie straws, crackers, cheese slices all worked well. Raisins did not – those things flew all over the car.

6. Have fun with your kiddo!

As much as I just wanted to get to my destination, I must say it was fun having a sing-a-long and playing old school games along the way. She knows her primary colors and numbers now, so we definitely killed some time pointing out the colors of cars and counting how many we passed on the highway. For me, the singing, talking and playing games along the way made the road trip special and memorable. And I know that if I didn’t have all of the other prep in place, I wouldn’t have been as relaxed to be able to enjoy these moments.