Traveling with children can be fun, it doesn’t always have to be stressful, though if they are small it can be sometimes. I know I travel over 4 hours with my small children regularly so I have a couple of tips up my sleeve that I would like to share with you. These are mainly for shorter car journeys.

Driving during the night

- An ideal thing to do when the children are reasonably young, is to try to travel of a night while the children are sleeping. I work it so that I feed them, put them in their pj’s and put them in the car, even if they are awake for about an hour of the journey, at least you have peace for the rest of the journey.

- You could also travel so far until dinner time, then have something to eat and put them in the pj’s at the restaurant or stop, then put them in the car to sleep the rest of the trip.

- Pack a flask so that you can have a cup of tea or coffee on the way and some snacks without waking the children or leaving them in the car alone.

The only thing that I recommend with driving at night, is please don’t do it if you are tired and driving alone, with no one to share the driving. Still stop regularly to have a rest yourself.

If you are driving during the day

- There is a space between the two car seats, I place a bag of toys and books in the middle of the two of them so they can just reach in and grab something. By the end of the trip all the toys and books are all over the back of the car and not in the bag, but if it kept them quiet for a short period of time, then all is good.

- A selection of good childrens music, that you can all sing along to. You really need to choose music that YOU like to sing to, as you will more than likely get to listen to it more than once. If you enjoy singing like I do then this is not an issue, I find the hubby doesn’t enjoy it as much, but they learn to suffer in silence.

- Water, now this is an important one, you need to make sure that you have enough water for all of you. I have been guilty of remembering the children but forgetting myself, and then getting very thirsty on the way.

- Snacks that are not going to make to much mess. I don’t recommend to much sweet stuff, as they might start to feel sick, and no one enjoys a sick child in the car.

- Stopping on the way. This is good for all just to get out and stretch your legs and let your bum un numb. Good time for a wee stop also.

The moto in Australia is “Stop, Revive, Survive”

Most of all you just need to enjoy your trip, and get to the other end in one piece.

You can get some other great ideas and tips at Works for Me Wednesday.