Driving with 3 year old and 15 month old?

[100AcreWood]

My youngest gets motion sickness. They make kids' dramamine. It can make them sleepy though.

 

[tiggger1]

We have driving from Massachusetts to Florida at least 5 times and will be doing in again in Aug. We make sure the kids have their ipads charged, new movies ready to go and new stuff for them to do. When my kids were little I made her I had a potty seat in the car with me JIC because you knew know when they needed to go or when you were were going to get stuck in traffic. The last time we we went my youngest refused to use the bathroom in some of the rest stops because they smelled ( he has sensory issued) thank go we had the potty seat because it would have been a miserable trip. I also packed each of us our own tervis cup and a cooler full of drinks (water, ice tea and gaterade) so they werent drinking juice boxes and capri suns the entire ride.... They each had a bag of their own toys and coloring books as well as notebooks and stickers. They each had a small cooler of their own snacks ( goldfish crackers, candies and lollipops) and once it was gone, then they had to wait and have whatever I brought, it helped with the "im hungry" a million times. I also took small treats ( stickers, games, little toys) I bought from the dollar section at target and individually wrapped those and gave them out every few hours. this year I am printing out a map to help with " are we there yet" which is my 9 year old favorite question! one of the best things that kept them busy at a young age was a cheap notebook and a container of stickers. It was meant to take the stickers and putting them on the pages and then ended with most of the pages of the notebook getting ripped up into tiny pieces and ending on the floor but it occupied them for hours.

 

[DYOBL0305]

As others mentioned, easy to eat snacks and drinks, plus some entertainment (if not movies because of motion sickness maybe music they can listen to and sing along to?) is key to getting through those long drives.

We did a 19 hr drive back in 2014 with 3 little ones (just-turned-6, 3 1/2, and just-turned-1 year old), and we were pretty hesitant about it but it made more sense for us to drive than to fly at the time. We left in the late afternoon, stopped to eat dinner two hours into our trip and drove straight the rest of the night only stopping to refuel and bathroom breaks. Our kids slept the whole way, only waking up once to go potty, and then going right back to sleep until the next morning when we stopped for breakfast. They went right back to sleep after that for a while and kept themselves entertained the rest of the trip watching movies and playing with their leapfrogs/kindles. Also, for the stretches they were awake for, we made a point to stop a couple of times to let them stretch their legs and run for a bit. Nice little breaks for everyone. In the end, IDK if it was because we got through the longest stretch of the drive at night while they slept that made the drive so much easier but it worked out really well for us and with zero meltdowns.

 

[krm222]

We've driven 10 hours with my two kiddos (then almost 4 and 8 months). As long as you budget stops, you'll be fine.

I wish Disney was only 7 hours away! I'd love having a car there!

 

[jtopp]

Have you considered driving overnight? You have two capable drivers, and you can carry the kids out to the van after they go to sleep and let them sleep the entire drive. If you split the driving, with one of you driving half the trip while the other sleeps, you can both be fresh the next day when your kids wake up and want to head out to the parks. We travel 16 hours, just over 1000 miles, and have done it numerous times, sometimes taking two days, sometimes driving straight thru. Now that they are older, we all split driving duty, and go straight thru. Everybody gets rest, so we are all raring to go when we get there. Have a fun and safe drive.

 

[cyneswith]

Driving overnight there isn't the best plan. I don't do well tired (medically) - with a 4 pm check-in time/not able to nap, that may be pushing it. Overnight back, well, we can sleep as soon as we're home.

 

[LovePug]

Have you tried the sun filtering window covers for the back seat windows? It might help cut down on the motion sickness if he has the side view filtered. Just a thought.

 

[DSNY4ever]

We drive to Disneyland (7 hours for us). Our last trip my son was 4 and daughter 15 months. We woke up at 3:00 am and were on the road by 3:25 (we just picked the kids up and put them in the car). We had gotten donuts as a surprise the night before and had everything by the door ready to be loaded in. I would definitely do it that way again. I was exhausted since I did the first half of the drive, but we only ended up having to stop once! We always travel with a tiny Lightning McQueen potty in the car in case of emergencies. The 4 year old had a blast with our iPad and books and coloring pad etc. The 15 month old had a harder time and I was glad that half of it was while she was still sleeping! Good luck!