My family is in the truck many times per week. Driving to ballet. Driving back. Driving to homeschool classes, grandmas, or church. We are moving moving moving!
Let me just state this — it is hard. Hard to load everyone up (especially in the winter), hard to keep them happy, hard to keep going. So what keeps me going?
My Car (or truck or van) Sanity Tips
1) A beverage of choice for mom. Mine would be coffee. However, many times I’ll just take water with. It helps me think and calm down especially if there is a great deal of NOISE.
2) Books on CD. Our family’s favorite? Anything narrated by Jim Weiss. Just today we were listening to tales about giants. Brennan, my six year old, loves these stories. His favorite? A tall tale about Finn McGoul from Ireland.
3) A clean vehicle. Seems obvious, but I’ll tell you — if my vehicle is a mess it makes the crabbiness level in me rise several notches. I’ve made it a point to clean out the trash whenever I get gas for the truck. And I try to vacuum it out every two weeks. Clean truck = happy mom.
4) For really long trips? The Nintendo DS or a Leapster. I know, I know, I know. That advice coming from me? But truly, a half hour of media really saves me. It is just too crowded to have them go hysterical. Or me.
5) My misbehaving trick? For every minute that I have to use disciplining it equals a minute of sitting with me in the truck when we arrive at our destination. This truly works. After all, who wants to arrive at Grandmas, or Dairy Queen, or the park and have to sit in the truck with me? Not that I’m not great, but you get the picture.
6) The old classic games. ABC game (where you find the letters), I Spy, or where we make stories based on where we’re driving. The busier, the better. I’ve also been know to resort to the Let’s Go the the Old Red Barn and see who can stay the quietest the longest game. When in need, it works.
What car tricks do you have? I’d love to hear. I’ll take any advice. 🙂
Oh yeah. One more thing. I’ve been known to pull over and pray. That always helps. And gets the kids attention that maybe they should settle down just a bit.
13 comments
Love the advice and tips. I don’t like driving a lot during the day…so this helps.
UM my trick is to let my kids snack in the car…but that usually =messy car…so they have to clean it.
I love the misbehaving tip. I’ll have to remember that!
Rachel,
I L.O.V.E. that pic of you driving while sipping coffee in teh winter. As a fellow Minnesotan…I just think it’s hilarious that we actually drive around like that! I had ordered a CD narrated by John Weiss from the library and we picked it up today. It’s nice to hear it keeps the calm in your car. In my car…we listen to kids music CD’s, play I Spy, and snack. As long as the front of my van is clean…I can handle the mess in exchange for quiet!
Nicki
daveandnickiskids.blogspot.com
My family and I love playing the ABC game! 🙂
I like your #5. We must be cut out of similar cloth, so to speak! When you do things like that while they’re little, it gets SO much easier when they get bigger. It really doesn’t take them long to catch on. Good job, Mom!
Our kids have those mini Magic Doodle boards that you can write on and erase. We call out license plate numbers and have them write them.
Great tips! My favorite game to play in the car is the “quiet game” !!!
My Advice: bring a LITTLE game for the little ones. For the older ones, a book always helps. Encourage your children of reading age to bring their favorite books on long drives. 🙂
That’s all for now
God bless your beautiful family,
~bree
Did I know you were from MN? Do I know YOU?
Anyway, I get the whole praying thing. Yesterday, I was so frustrated. We were supposed to be going to the beach with a bunch of friends (who were already there), but my 2nd oldest was NOT obeying at all that morning. It was WAY past feeding time for the baby, the entrance to the park was temporarily shut down so that they could hang a sign and they weren’t letting anyone in for about a 1/2 hour, but my friends were there because I was an hour late (thanks to my 2nd), and I was so mad (espeically at my 2nd oldest). I was driving around trying to figure out what to do and decided to go to a parking lot that would make my kids walk a mile until we got to the beach. As a gift from God, they were in good spirits about it, but as I was driving to the far away parking lot, I was so mad. I started to pray out loud for myself and tell God that I was especially mad at Brin (my 2nd) by name. It was pretty cool how just talking to God helped to diffuse me.
Then, we got to the parking lot, unloaded, and began our trek to the beach. The kids were in good spirits and walked and ran happily and excitedly. Thank you Jesus, but by the time we actually got to the beach, I was once again so mad! Because we had to do that!
Oh, my! My friends are wonderful and just let me be crabby!
But praying really helped in the car!
We’ve been on the road about 6000 miles since March, so by now we’ve done it all, it seems. What has worked best for us – singing, changing seating arrangements, Mom reading aloud to everyone (while Dad drives!), books on tape – free classic downloads from librivox.org, Jonathan Park series from Vision Forum, Bible Pictionary.
I love your “misbehaving trick” idea – will have to try that!!
funny post! lol. thanks for the books on cd tip. 😉
Love number 5! I’m sure my children will want me to thank you for the idea. 🙂
fantastic tips! i love your eskimo-like foto. : ) we got a new car (not really new by any means, but new to us) that came w/ a dvd player. we could care less, but our friends w/ 5 kids said that one day we will cherish it for road trips! elijah is still so cute when he’s not happy!