long road trip with two twos

[Amandzia]

Next week (oct 10th) we're driving 8 hrs to visit relatives. I have kid music, Tabby trays to hook onto the car seats. I got some new little toys but I'm still worried that it'll be a horribly long ride with two two yr. olds. We're also taking my 11 yr old. Does anyone have any ideas or advice or words of encouragement? I'm thinking lots of snacks. Also, I stopped pushing potty training when I found out about the trip. I didn't want to deal with that aspect on the road. I'm thinking we should bring lots of snacks. Any ideas?
~Amanda

[Piglet68]

I suppose the important thing would be to make sure you stop along the way and let them out to run around, etc. You will probably have to add a couple extra hours to your travel time, but I think it's a necessity. You really can't expect them to stay in their car seats for such a long time.

[toepea]

I just have to say that I used to make a 7-8 hour drive with my twins and their brother a couple of times a year and it was never as bad as I anticipated, and usually went faster than I imagined. I was always by myself with my boys and would assume that it would take an additional couple of hours, sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. I always had snacks, waters, and not much else, perhaps a couple of books and I think at the time I had one kids tape........ You would think that I would remember it for how many times I listened to it but all I can remember now is ....'what would "Della Wear" and it had Oregon, Washington and a couple of other states in it and, of course, several other songs.

I don't know if I was lucky or not, but I got to the point of not even worrying about making the drive. They were about 16 months (the twins) and 3 (their brother) when we started our road trips..... maybe even younger? I can't remember.

You can do it and I wish you lots of luck.

[Amandzia]

Thank you both for the tips and encouragement. I'm feeling better with our decision to go now. I used to drive long distances with my older daughter when she was small. I guess I just became wimpy with age. :-)
But we'll be fine and I guess there are no magical secrets to make it go smoothly.
thank you
Amanda

[faythe]

Dh and I drove from Ohio to Florida (and back) when the girls were 26 months and Olivia was 7 months. We had a bag full of toys, some new and some favorites. Since it was a business trip for me we had my laptop along, and used it to play movies in the evening. A bag of M&M's helped pass the time while we looked for someplace to eat. And we made lots and lots of stops. I think the longest stretch we drove was about 3 1/2 hours. We actually stopped at a shopping center at one point and let them walk around in the stores for an hour or so. It wasn't fun, but we all survived, no worse for the wear. Total travelling time was about 24 hours each way.

[MamaOui]

I am taking a trip from MA to the DC area in a couple of weeks alone with my 3.5 year old and my 21 month old. I will try to distract them that day to see if they'll skip a nap. We will leave around 4:00 pm. We will stop for dinner somewhere between 6 and 7 and I am hoping they'll be asleep between 8 or 9.

[Cakes]

Amandzia,

We went from the Bay Area to Seattle not so long ago. We had books on tape and the favorite with the two year olds was Caps For Sale. They also loved the Cinderella tape. We took three days to drive up. We drove about 5 hours per day.Spending two nights in hotels with pools. The ride back was a straight 12 hour drive between my husband and I. All three kids slept the entire twelve hours. When we reached home the parents took turns napping the day away.
My son spent the entire second day, on the way up, playing with a small motorcycle while sitting in his car seat. We stopped for lunch and some playground time about every two to three hours on the way up. I had my stash of puppets, music, stickers, lolipops, snacks, tapes, music, crayons, markers, books, ect. in the front seat within easy reach. I was exhausted and car sick for the ride up but the kids were happy!!
Hope your trip is as easy as ours and enjoy the vacation time.

Julianne

[Amandzia]

Thank you all for your encouragement. It went so well, we're eager to take more trips. The twins were quite content and the only one to have any sort of meltdown was my 11 year old and that was only in the last hour comming home.