Just how crazy am I?

[gardenvarietymama]

Hi mamas,

So my husband has to be away from us for eight weeks, and the twins (almost 3) and I will be staying with my parents. I love my parents, but I'm not that excited about staying with them for eight solid weeks with the kids. But I'll tell you what I AM excited about: driving to Albuquerque. I love the area, and one of my very best friends is there with her little one, and I have been itching for a long time to take a road trip out there for a visit. I obviously can't leave the twins, and I have this crazy idea that I could just pop them in the car by myself and drive down there (from MA). DH thinks I am insane. But here's my thinking:

We have lots of family to stay with on the way, and no pressure to get there for any specific day. If it takes us a week and a half to get there and a week and a half to get back, that's okay. The boys travel pretty well, and we often do shorter (4-hour or so) 'road trips', and they do great, with a few exceptions. Obviously, this is a whole different animal, but I think the principle sort of applies. And I feel like as long as I have no expectations about how long the trip will take, and pack lots and lots of fun things for them to do in the car, and plan lots of fun stops with lots of cool cousins to play with, and remain open to the possibility that it might be a nightmare and we may not make it all the way there, it should be okay. Right?

Any other mamas do solo road trips with toddlers? I'm interested to hear your experiences, or just your feedback of whether you think I'm nuts or not. Thanks in advance!

[feminist~mama]

nak

i took my toddler to mexico at 3... it was great! have fun mama!

[nola79]

I drove from Louisiana to Washington D.C. (and back) when my son was 2, almost 3. Just him and I, it was great!

[nolonger]

I took my 2 1/2 year old (who couldn't STAND the car as an infant) on a 2 day mini-road trip that could easily have been cut short if necessary and he LOVED it! I think you should go for it, since it sounds as if you have similar contingency plans.

[shanniesue2]

I just finished a road trip with my 2 yo. All by myself. We were going from Tulsa to Chicago and to visit my brother. We made the trip in two days... the first day of the trip was to St. Louis (which is about a 6 hour drive). The second day was from St. Louis to Chicago. I really worked to keep each leg on each day to no more than 3 hours with a good amount of play time on the breaks. So we would stop at parks or McDonald's (I tried to find ones with playlands, but they are few and far between on the road) or something. On the last day home, we even stopped in Springfielf, MO to ride through Fantastic Caverns. He LOVED that... kept calling it a volcano. Another stop was at a Cracker Barrel and I bought him a toy airplane from their shop area. He did REALLY well with the whole trip. When he fell asleep, my rule became to just drive as afar as I possibly could until he woke up or got cranky. When he wasn't asleep we talked about all the different trucks and bridges and things that we saw on the road. He got a really big kick out of all the bridges, especially the big ones. And we passed a few car carriers that he really liked.

I tried to have a little portable DVD player set up for him, but then I couldn't get the player to read the DVDs. I also put a basket full of toys and books next to his carseat. And packed lots of snacks (little marshmellows, granola bars, and I was even lax enough on this trip to introduce him to gummy worms). Anyway, I just tried to make being on the road special and out of the ordinary. So that he got to do/eat/drink things I wouldn't normally let him do/eat/drink.

My dad told me I was brave for making that trip with DS all by myself. But we had a great time. And DS did really well for the majority of the trip. Now I was exhausted by the time we got home... but who isn't after a big vacation?