We spend every Christmas with my family in northern NY and ever New Years with my husband's family in AL. We usually drive, since flights that time a year are just ridiculously priced.
M's generally good in the car as long as he has his video player, but definitely gets restless and bored near the end of the 4-5 hour trip to Vermont. His booster seat makes it near impossible for him to get comfortable enough to sleep in the car.
We looked into flights, but it would cost us something like $1600 for all three of us and the rental car we'd need in AL. His family lives in the boonies and is all spread out and away from the airport, so we can't do without the rental. We feel it makes sense to do the drive, but I need ideas on how to make it less painful for all of us.
Any great ideas for passing the time in the car? Ways to make the trip more interesting? I know that my in-laws stopped at Gettysburg once, but M's doesn't yet understand US history, so I'm sure it wouldn't hold any interest to him, except being a place to run around. Any other ideas to make this bearable?
Re: Staring down the barrel at a road trip with M
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For our road trips, we have waited to see how Andy deals with it. If he ends up falling asleep, we power through. When he doesn't (he isn't generally a car sleeper), we stop in the early evening at a hotel with a pool. Do an early dinner and then spend the remaining evening swimming.
So, yeah, do what Sam suggested.
portable dvd players are good, and magnadoodles, and window stickers (how old is her? he might be too old for that...)
books
colored pencils ( I hate crayons in the car.)
colorforms
a basket of variety.
candy.