I have been blessed with a husband who hails from Greater Manchester. While his Lancastrian tones and dry sense of humour are really rather lovely, the distance we have to travel to see his equally lovely family is less appealing.
On a good day, it can take as little as five hours to get up to the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine’s home town from our house in Devon. On a bad day, however, we are talking eight hours plus. Eight hours. In a car. With a three year old who “GOT WEE! GOT WEE! MUMMY!” every hour or so. It’s not pretty.
I remember the first time we went up to see the NLM’s family, back when Frog was a mere 6 weeks old. I was nervous about the trip, worrying about getting caught in traffic and not being able to placate my screaming newborn with a milky boob. Luckily for us she slept most of the journey (back then it was a shorter trip, from Berkshire). Since then we have had many, many more journeys up and down the M5 and M6.
A few things have made the travelling easier. I always stock up on snacks and pack sandwiches, fruit and plenty of drinks for the journey. At Christmas I chuck in a mince pie and some chocolate too. It saves on being charged fifty million pounds for a packet of chocolate buttons at the services.
We take a supply of books for the journey, which Frog will happily “read” before dropping off to sleep. We were recently sent a stash of books to make the long journey easier – including Frog’s current favourite The Tiger Who Came to Tea. (Thanks to Airport Parking and Hotels – a good place to find cheap airport parking – for the tips.) There’s also a really handy travel desk she has for the car, which means she can doodle with crayons when she wakes up too.
Regular stop-offs are an absolute requirement when travelling with a young child – not to mention a mother with a weakened post-child pelvic floor. We tend to stop at a couple of service stations en-route to have a bit of a walk about, go to the loo and get some (straight off the motorway) fresh air.
Frog is at the age where she loves the idea of games. She can’t quite grasp the concept of “I Spy” yet, but she had a good bash at it on our most recent trip up north at Christmas. It basically ended up with everything beginning with “I spy with my little eye sumfink beginning with M Mummy.” We quickly learned that “M” was not for “Mummy”, but “ME! (ha ha ha ha)”. The joke got old after the tenth time, but still, at least she wasn’t crying.
Music is another companion for us on long car journeys. We tend to flick between various radio stations and CDs, to appease ALL members of the family. Frog loves music and has done ever since she was a baby. Back then, if she started getting fidgety then we could guarantee at least 15 minutes grace period if we put some music on.
How about you? How do you survive long car journeys with kids?
***
This post is written in collaboration with APH. I was sent a selection of books for the purpose of this piece.
Follow
Tee hee, when we were little we used to play a game where we had to make up sentences from the last three letters of a license plate. Or, when gran was getting really desperate, she’d give us all a mint and start a competition on who could keep it in their mouth the longest- that definitely shut us up concentrating!
Your gran sounds like a genius. If only my 3 year old would eat mints!
We play ispy with colours, so “I spy with my little eye, something the colour of…” – definitely works before they learn their sounds.
I may also have to take issue with the title of your post – “the longest journey ever”. In less than three weeks I will be taking the twins on a 28 hour flight to New Zealand. Gulp.
Argh. 28 hours? Sheesh! Worth it when you get there though. I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand.
we bought her a little tv so she can look at her favourite cartoons when we travel for hours.
Good thinking! Frog has a LeapPad Ultra, so maybe we’ll take that too next time.
I tend to find that an iphone with earpieces works well…it drowns out the sound of the kids fighting in the back over who’s got the most/least space..
We drove from Calais to Les Gets in the French Alps with a 10 year old, 16 month old and 2 and a half year old. It was hard work!!!