How far have you driven with small children?

[tiggger1]

We drove from mass to virginia with my daughter when she was 16 months old. We left around 9 and she was out for the count at about 10. Since she loves to sleep in the car she slept till about 1pm. I gave her lunch in her seat and she was fine playing and watching her movies.. ( we bought a small tv and used our home dvd player. it only cost us about 100 bucks for the tv and the car adaptor, plus my daughter has her own tv now..) she napped about for about 1 hour around 3 ish and we let her out to change her diaper. she started getting fussy then and probably would have done better if we didnt take her out. we stopped again a short time later to meet up with his parents and took her out agian. she watched her movied again till 7ish when we stopped eat.. we got to where we were going at around 8. she was so tired from being in the car all day that she crashed for the night at around 9:30...

i did make sure she had crayons and paper, her dolls and a ton of books and stickers ( that kept her the busiest.)

 

[Carolinagirl1063]

DVD player! I have travelled up to 16 hours with my 4yo DVD is a must! We give her all kind of things to play with:

markers
paper stickers
magna doodle
princess laptop
leapster
she likes to find roadside signs I tell her to look for blue signs with 95 on them or green signs with 111 (milemarkers) or blue signs with McDonalds logo or whatever your child likes. My dd is very proud of what she can find!
Snacks and drinks within HER reach.
books
disney toys like stuffed animals or those small handsize things I think they are PVC
let her run on rest stops or stop at a fast food place with a play area. We stopped at a Chuck E. Cheese last year on a long trip--she burned alot of energy!

Biggest tip...bring LOTS OF PATIENCE! (xanax helps!)

OT we went to WDW in February and I drove a friend's ford ranger back (dh and 2 friends stayed in Daytona for the race) dd could not use DVD player since she was in front seat(against the law for these to be in view of driver) this was an EXPERIENCE. I left St. Augustine at 7am stopped a little before 9 without thinking I told dd "yes you can have that 20oz Coke and that bag of Sweet 16 donuts". She was bouncing off the sides of that truck. She sang at the top of her lungs from Jacksonville to Santee SC. Yes, she drank the WHOLE COKE ( a first for her usually a sip or two satisfies her) and ate 4 or 5 donuts covered in POWDERED SUGAR what was I thinking! If she wasn't singing, she was talking nonstop. Every time my cell rang whoever was calling would say "What's that noise?" I would answer "Kayla singing" They would say "what have you been giving her?!" She was also very excited to be in the front seat! Moral of story...watch your childs caffeine and sugar intake on road trips!