Recently, my family moved across the country with our (almost) two year old little girl. We decided to sell/give away everything that we couldn't fit in our car. The morning of our move our car was packed to the max, and we began a 4 day trip from Massachusetts to Utah. We've done shorter day trips before (anywhere from 5 hours to 10 hours) with our little girl, but this 4 day trip taught us a lot about road tripping with a toddler. Some things we nailed and some things we wished we would have/wouldn't have done.
Without further adieu, here's my list of 7 ways to survive a road trip with a toddler! Plus the only random pictures we got on our journey.
1. Over pack.
When we were moving, we filled our car to the brim. Like, I was afraid the doors were going to bust open. We were only going to be driving for a few days, so my husband and I boxed up most of our clothes (we shrink wrapped most of them) and only packed the essentials for ourselves. We had an overnight bag we could easily grab that was about 80% for Ellie. We had her clothes, socks, blankets and a couple of pairs of shoes. We figured if she peed out of her diaper, or spilled her food, we'd be prepared. Little did we know, we had actually under packed. Our poor girl got some type of stomach bug the morning we left and was puking in the car 20 minutes into our drive. We ended up having to buy bibs, more towels, upholstery cleaner, lysol wipes and more pajamas on the road because we ran out of everything we had easy access to.
In a perfect world, we would have just stayed with her in a hotel until she was all better, but my grandfather had just passed away so we had a funeral to get to. There was also a pretty nasty weather forecast later on in the week for Wyoming and Utah, so we were anxious to beat that. We ended up needing to take her to an ER in Ohio because she was so sick. This set us back about a day, but it was very much worth it to get her hydrated and on some meds to make her feel better. We were blessed to make it there on time, although we did end up driving through some scary weather.
I know that we had a crappy situation, and it most likely won't happen to you, but I urge all parents to be over prepared because you never really know what's going to happen. These kids are unpredictable little creatures.
2. Have practical toys on hand.
Our girl loves playing with play dough, puzzles, and any other toy that can get smooshed into carpet or be considered a choking hazard. She also really loves to drop things so that we'll pick them up for her. We decided that we'd bring just a few toys that were big enough to not get lost, easy for her to hold, and easy to wipe up and clean. We brought:
- Her very favorite books, along with some new ones that she could get excited about.
- A magna doodle like this so she could easily hold it and not lose her pen (we took the little stamps away so they wouldn't get lost).
- Her favorite Frozen lunch box that she could put dolls and smaller animals in. She loved to take them in and out and close the box up to keep them safe
- Her two beloved stuffed animals
That's it! We rotated the toys and between naps and iPad time. With her being sick, it was all we needed for her. We were anti crayons and coloring books, because we knew that would be a huge mess. When I have older kids, I love to get one of these, but I don't think that would have worked for our 2 year old. We put boxes on the floor of the car and draped towels over those to make an easy to reach "table" for her and us. That way, things didn't get lost so easily.
3. Use a tablet holder.
I'm a parent that isn't anti technology. Sue me. I believe in moderation, but I also believe that if it makes a sick baby happy on a car trip, why the heck not. We got a simple tablet holder at Target before we left, and downloaded a bunch of episodes of her favorite shows (The Hive, Madeline and Word World. I'm so sick of those shows it's not even funny. But they saved our behinds). She had never watched tv in the car before and at first we thought that was why she threw up. "Maybe she's car sick!" we said... "Maybe she won't throw up again!" we said.. But when all that little girl wanted after a nasty throw up was her shows, it was so nice to have them up and running and away from her vomit and little curious fingers. We'd turn it off while she was sleeping or doing something else, but we felt zero guilt having that iPad going.
4. Don't be strict on arrival times.
If it had just been my husband and I driving, we could have easily booked hotels in advance, routed the gas stations we were going to use, and had a pretty good idea of when we were going to arrive. But when you had a small child, anything can happen. The first day of our trip, Ellie threw up seven times. SEVEN. We would get to the point where we'd say "There cannot be anything left in her stomach." and then boom, she'd prove us wrong. We would either pull off to a store, gas station or on the side of the road. We had a bib that would catch most of it, but we still would need lots of wipes, a clothes change, towel change and sometimes a quick upholstery cleaning. It was smelly business and at the beginning of December, it was frigid. We never knew how long it would take, how bad the damage would be and how long she needed a good cuddle before we could get going again. Before we left, we routed our cities to arrive in each night. My husband had already booked a hotel for our first stop, but since it took us much longer than anticipated with all the stops, we arrived much, much later than we planned. We pushed through some pretty tired driving to get to that hotel. The next day, we didn't have a hotel booked and we just decided to go as long as we were able. We were about 2 hours outside of our "goal" city when we both couldn't take it anymore and needed to be done. We booked hotels through hotels.com, about 20 minutes before arriving in each city we were stopping in, which saved us a lot of money getting those last minute rooms. We were always about 1-2 hours behind schedule (and nearly an entire day behind our original plan with a trip to the ER), but we made it and we weren't driving dangerously drowsy at night.
I know a lot of parents decided to sleep during the day and drive through the night while the child is sleeping, but that wasn't something my husband and I could've done. We both prefer driving when it's light outside so we're more aware, our bodies are just used to getting tired at night so I think we would have been sleepy regardless of how much sleep we had that day, and our toddler wakes up in the car a lot when we go over bumps and stop for gas. We liked it much better when she could get a good night sleep in a bed. But do whatever works for you and your family!
5. Don't push the gas fill-ups.
This is one that we've learned from previous trips. It's advice for anyone going on a road trip, but with an unpredictable toddler, it was very important. Instead of filling up when we were nearly empty, we would pull off sooner than we thought we needed (often times to clean up puke) and just filled up so we never had to be worried. I don't think we ever got much further below a half tank. That peace of mind was so nice to have on such a tough trip.
Tip: Get gas outside of the big cities. If you're planning on stopping in a bigger city, get your gas right before or right outside of the city. It's always been much cheaper for us. Middle-of-nowhere gas is also pretty expensive, so we'd try and fill up when there was a cluster of towns, rather than just one tiny one between a 100 mile stretch.
One time, we were driving to California from Salt Lake. Much of that drive is pretty desolate. There was one point where I thought that maybe we should stop for gas, but we didn't because we knew we could make it to the next town with what we had. Well, this awful wind started to pick up, and we were driving up some pretty steep hills. Our car was working twice and hard and our MPG number was dropping quick. I was planning on just being in the middle of no where desert with no service and no cars coming for miles. We thought that there would either be a good Samaritan to help us or we'd just die there. I swear, there is no way in this universe that we should have made it to a gas station. But we did and we are so grateful to this day for that miracle. Don't be like us. Be prepared.
6. *Try* to have a good attitude.
Our little girl has always been very dramatic and demanding. We've learned to take things she does with a grain of salt and make otherwise awful situations, comical. The first time she threw up on our trip, we both just busted out laughing. We could/couldn't believe this was our life. We tried really hard to stay optimistic and happy both for our sanity and the happiness of our sick girl. We tried to make her laugh, we'd play games while she was sleeping and just did our best to stay optimistic during a crummy drive. We hit freezing rain (there was a half inch of ice covering our car at one point) and a blizzard. We had temperatures so low that after one hotel stay, I came back to the car and my pillow was frozen solid. No joke. It was a lot to get us down, and there were points that we were having a rough time. But we focused so much on staying positive and trying to make light of the situation that it made it much more enjoyable and memorable. We said many, many prayers and I know that God was with us helping us through that crazy time. I think it was very helpful and healing for Ellie as well to have good energy in that tiny car. Easier said than done, I know, but it made a huge difference for us.
7. Don't bring a ton of food.
This one might seem odd. If something were to happen and we were stranded, wouldn't you want a lot of food?! Our mistake was filling up the car with so many snacks, that it used up too much space. I barely had any room in the passenger seat, which wasn't very comfortable. We didn't eat nearly as much as we thought we would, and what we did eat turned into a pile of trash on the floor. I'd say to bring simple/healthy snacks to start out with, and throw away/stock back up as you go. Things we enjoyed having were:
- Granola bars
- Fruit snacks/leather
- Trail mix
- Beef jerky
- Caffeinated beverages (to keep us alive haha)
- Water
- Milk in a cooler and sippy cups
We bought way too much of the above and then some before we left. Plus it turned out that our little girl wasn't even going to eat anything anyways until the last day of our trip. We just threw everything into little plastic bags and it was a mess. If I had it to do again, what I think I would do is have a bag/box designated to trash. When you stop, empty it out. Easy. I would also have another bag/box dedicated to food. Take all the food out of the boxes and bags they came in (if individually wrapped) to save more room. We brought a big old box of canned coke so we could could grab it easily. That was a mistake. Just get new bottles at gas stations when you need them and use the cup holder. Bring one water bottle each and refill along the way instead of having a ton of plastic bottles taking over. We brought a little cooler with Ellie's milk and a few sippy cups that we'd wash out at the hotel each night. She didn't drink a lot but I am glad we had the cooler even though it took up more room.
Good luck on your next trip! If you have any questions or any other advice for driving with a toddler, I'd love to hear it!
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