For many people, the holidays are over. This is often a holiday in which they arrive at their destination with a long car ride with the children. Going on holiday with your (young) children is fun and cosy. But usually the journey is something that many parents dread, especially if it is by car. On a cruise ship, entertainment is enough. But keeping your kids busy on a plane, bus, train or in your own backseat during a long car trip is an enormous challenge to say the least. Especially if you have to deal with traffic jams or delays. The traffic jam record dates from 2014, when there were 994 kilometers of traffic jams on the French highways. Arguing and screaming children on the road do not contribute to a safe and relaxed journey.
When our teenagers were still teenagers, they hated traveling. One of the reasons for this has always been that they quickly became travel sick. A long car ride with the children was therefore not a success. If we had to drive a long distance, there was always a bucket in the back seat with a bag in it. I always had a supply of bags and wet wipes and water with me when driving with children. In the course of time they have outgrown that, although it remains a thing, that motion sickness in our family. There is still a bucket in the back seat, it has become a habit. Fortunately, these days it is often used as a waste bin.
Our small children quickly got bored in the backseat during the car ride. When we had barely driven twenty kilometers, the first 'how-long-is-it-is' usually came, about the same time as the 'I-have-to-pee' message. Creative diversion had to be sought. This was tricky when they were really little. I usually tied a toy to their car seat so that it was always close by. I can still remember a trip to Belgium, without air conditioning and navigation in our car. Two screaming guys with bright red cheeks don't help your sense of direction when you're lost.
As they got older, the children often whined for sweets during the car ride out of boredom. One of the things we still do to this day is our self-invented candy policy † “Mom, can I have some candy?” this question eight hundred and fifty times during a car ride, it's driving me crazy. At one point we introduced the rule:With every 100 kilometers you get a candy. Sometimes they have bad luck, then we are in a traffic jam, then it takes a very long time. But the rule remains as it is. The navigation system is the referee, who determines. It saves a lot of nagging.
The older the boys got, the easier it became to keep them occupied during a long car ride. A fun game on the go was, and still is, the search for funny license plates , which works especially well with the German number plates. A favorite car game is also; I know someone you know too t. One of us has someone in mind. By asking questions to which only yes or no can be answered, you have to find out about that person. Another game that is easy to play in the car is the letter sling † I have no idea what it's really called, or if it has a name at all, and actually I don't know if it's an official game, but the intention is to make as long a row as possible of, for example, boy names. The last letter of the first must be the first letter of the next. (Kees-Simon-Noud-Daan-Nico)
When the bottom of the candy jar is reached, the letter garland is boring, 'I-know-someone-you-know-too' is too annoying, and the roof of the car comes off due to an argument in the back seat, while the holiday destination is still has not been achieved there is one more thing you can try as a parent. The game, who can be silent as long as possible….
How did you survive the long car ride with the kids again?
