Our family of four has been on the road now for 2 months straight, travelling around the coast of Australia. I’ve been finessing my travel techniques. I don’t have a silver bullet to ensure 100% harmony… but I think we are doing pretty well and travelling with our two kids aged 3.5 and 1.5years has exceeded my expectations.

I think the key to harmony when travelling with kids is careful preparation and the ability to be flexible.

So, what tricks and tips do I have to offer you?

Let’s start with my philosophy to car travel so you know my baseline for car travel tips…

A bleeding obvious way to keep harmony is to sit in the back with the kids and valiantly entertain them throughout the journey. Perhaps you are a saintly parent and can withstand such torture. I am a patient person, but do not have the patience for the aforementioned. So I sit in the front and do all that I possibly can to prevent climbing into the backseat.

Whilst travelling in the front passenger seat, I am also not patient enough to survive the never-ending twist around torture (i.e. turning and uncomfortably twisting around to deal with whatever requests the kids in the back are demanding. Many a stiff neck and busted vertebrae has been the result of such action). Plus, I am one of those people that gets car-sick within minutes of moving too much whilst travelling, and twisting around to deal with the kids in the back is a sure-fire way to make me want to puke.

Bottom line: I attack car travel like a military operation to ensure everything is within arm’s reach at a moment’s notice to prevent melt-downs by children and adults alike. Unfortunately the human element and the mechanical car element mean that no car trip has ever been 100% uneventful but I do what I can to avoid dramas.

Sometimes things just are out of your control.

Right, onto my tricks for car travel with children.

1. Consider the time you are travelling. Do your children sleep in the day? If so, schedule driving to coincide with that. Aaaah, driving in silence is such pure bliss.

Sleeping children

2. Are you a night owl? If so, you might want to consider driving at night time and then transferring the kids to bed when you get to your destination. Obviously, having kids that transfer without waking from the car to the bed is a requisite for this trick!

3. If your children watch TV, I think you need to seriously consider investing in a portable DVD player or an iPad or the like. My 3 year old sits glued to the TV when we drive. I bought mine at Big W for $99 and it has an additional screen for a 2^nd person to watch. Unfortunately my 1 year old is too young to be entertained by the TV (despite my constant tries to get her addicted!!) and so I need other ways to keep her happy when driving. Keep all the DVDs in a DVD wallet in an easily accessible place. Preferably teach your kids how to handle the DVDs carefully and use the DVD player themselves… again, less things for you to do when travelling!

4. Music. Even in this age of iPads and fancy technology, never underestimate the power of plain old childrens’ music. Sometimes when my 1 year old is on the verge of losing it because she wants to get out of the car, I put on the music and hey presto, she is distracted. If I really have to, I sing along to keep the peace. Current favourites for my kids are Justine Clarke (ABC) and The Little People (Fisher Price). (And I will add that as much as my husband complains when I mention we need to put on the music, I have seen him drumming his fingers on the steering wheel to Justine Clarke’s “Happy Dog” song).

5. Have a ready supply of food on hand. I won’t advocate giving your kids crap to eat in the car (plus who wants kids high on sugar strapped into the backseat?) but I do find trickling through a steady supply of healthy snacks keeps them occupied and satisfied and quiet (that’s the key word here). I like to find food that is mess free and easy to handle by themselves (again, you want to avoid the twisting around thing). For this reason, I often pack lunch boxes for them that sit flat on their laps and they can pick at the contents (that don’t need unwrapping). Carrot sticks, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, blueberries, sandwiches are consistent showers in our lunch boxes. My 3 year old has suddenly shown an interest in those baby rusks which I am more than happy about because they take a long while to eat given they are so hard!

6. In terms of organising your car, I bought a flexible rectangle shaped box that fits neatly into the space behind the driver’s seat. I call this my “car busy box”. It contains some toys, books, a spare change of clothes, and other bits and bobs to keep the the kids entertained. I can reach my hand into the box and pull out something to pass to the kids without really having to twist around! I also have a reusable bag that I use as a bin which I hang off the back of one of the car seats. I also know people who use a box between the kids’ seats (assuming you only have 2 kids in the back, you are a better person than me if you have more than 2 kids) for various purposes such as storing food and collecting rubbish. I originally bought car travel trays for the kids but have just dumped them at the local Vinnies store because I could never get them to attach securely and they drove me nuts. I thought they were good in theory (for the kids to have their own tables, like you have on planes), but I couldn’t find any table trays that were the right size for the car and the kids (meaning the depth of the table coming back to reach across the girls’ laps). So I’ve given up on these.

7. Toys etc that I keep in the car busy box include:

• Sticker activity books keep my 3 year old entertained, so does the ‘wipe clean’ book I recently purchased (Priddy “Pen Control”).
• Santa gave the girls one of those “Hide And Seek” bags which was handmade in Tasmania and I thought was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately they don’t seem to find it interesting, but I know other kids that have seen it think it is fun.
• Small press button/music toys for my 1 year old (I’ve been picking these up from Vinnies or second hand markets and recycling them through quickly to keep her amused by them)
• A “draw and erase” toy such as a Classic Doodle Board or a Magna Doodle.
• Pencil case with textas/crayons with small drawing pad. I also have a handful of pipe cleaners in there which sometimes the kids will play with, making endless shapes bending them.
• I’ve realised a game that seems to keep my 1 year old entertained the longest whilst sitting still is putting things in and out of a container. For this reason I have a small “Klipo” container  that I have filled with random items. I chose the Klippo brand because the lid is attached to the container (so won’t fall on the ground and require me to pick it up 100 times) and is easy enough for her to open and close by herself.
• If there is a certain toy or toys that your young child loves playing with in the car, I suggest you get some string and tie it to the car seat so that when she drops it (because that is what they like to do), you don’t need to be frantically searching for it in that torturous twisted position when they are having a blow-out because they want it back. Soon enough she will learn to pull on the string and the toy will return.
• And if your children have comforters or cuddle toys, DEAR GOD do NOT FORGET to put them in the car. We made the mistake once of packing Miss M’s “soft pink cuddle” in our camper trailer and we didn’t hear the end of that for quite some time.

8. Be flexible with your travel plan. For example, if we had planned to stop for morning tea on the way out on a journey but our 1 year old has fallen asleep sooner than expected…. Keep driving! My rule is to NEVER stop when you have a sleeping child unless you really have to. Of course, if you have to or really want to stop, you just need to be prepared to suffer the consequences of an awake and restless toddler for the remainder of your journey. On the flip side, sometimes you need to be flexible and stop somewhere you didn’t plan to stop. If the kids are restless and about to crack it, stop the car, let them out, wear them out and them try again.

9. Pack more in the car than you think you need. By this I mean food, drink, clothes, nappy, formula, whatever your kids need on a daily basis. There have been times when we have not arrived to our destination until late at night when we expected to be there in the afternoon. On these occasions, I have been so relieved to have remembered to pack an extra dose of milk formula, extra clothes so they are in clean PJs before falling asleep in the car, snacks to feed them because we thought we would have an opportunity to stop for dinner but it turned out there were no restaurants for another 150km… you know what I’m saying. Just be prepared for the unexpected. This avoids the kids (or you) losing their shit because they are tired or hungry.

Doesn’t look like there will be any cafes around here…

10. Have an ‘emergency car kit’ with an assortment of stuff. I’m not talking First Aid (although that is a good idea too). I’m talking about Childrens’ Panadol (for when you stop at a park and your 1 year old comes flying down a slippery dip way too big for her and smashes her head on the ground), Insect Repellant, sunscreen, nappies, spare pack of wipes, tissues, change of underwear, any other things you think might be needed which you don’t want to carry around in your handbag all day long (I even have spare toothbrushes in mine because sitting in the car is a good opportunity to get them to brush their teeth). You may choose to pack it into a bag or use one of those carseat organisers that strap onto the back of the front seat. The one I have has mesh pockets so that everything can be easily found.

11. A cask of water in the car boot is also a good idea for refilling drink bottles when you don’t want to find a shop (not to mention better for the environment than buying plastic bottles all the time).

Given that I am sitting next to my husband as I type this, I thought I might ask his contribution for car travel tips. Hold onto your hats, here they are:

12. Make sure your kids have had some exercise (or preferably a LOT of exercise) before you get into a car.

13. Consider your childrens’ car seats. Are they comfortable? Assuming they are safe for your child’s age and weight, a seat that can recline is better than a seat that is fully upright. (In terms of the kids sleeping comfortably without their head bobbing down on their knees).

14. Shades on windows make it dangerous to drive {*insert eye roll by me here*…my husband is ALWAYS carrying on about how he hates the window shades} but they do help the kids to sleep better.

15. Reduce the oxygen in the backseat like they do in airplanes to encourage the kids to sleep {in case you don’t get his humour, this is a joke, we have not done this.}

16. If all else fails, poke them in the eyes. {I am now embarrassed and have nothing left to say about this other than I’m not sure how often I will ask for my husband’s advice when writing my blog posts.}

Reading back on this, I know it sounds all very negative and I suppose some of you might be wondering why we are bothering to travel with kids at all if we expect to contribute so little to their wellbeing when driving in the car. Oh no, dear readers, please do not think that. In actual fact, I do all this to ensure their wellbeing, because being trapped in a car with unhappy children is a very unpleasant place to be! Not to mention that I have been blessed cursed blessed (let’s keep it positive now, shall we?) with a slightly obsessive personality, I do think that peaceful and fun travelling with kids is all in the details of preparation BEFORE you get in the car! This way, the car trip doesn’t become a painful event of “Are we {F#$king} there YET?”, but rather a time to “enjoy the journey”.

Happy travelling.

Do you have any tips and tricks for car travel with kids? If so, please share!