2 Under 2: My 6 Road Trip Mistakes

Traveling with kids is a daunting task, and even more so with unpredictable babies. During Little Man’s first year, we traveled with him LOTS – Italy, Quebec, and many trips to Vancouver. But one baby is easy. One baby road trip, who is now a toddler, is manageable because it’s all about him all the time. Then, you have two babies, and suddenly your attention is split, and meeting their needs is just a little more challenging. It’s just not as simple on a baby road trip.

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This week I road tripped with my 2 under 2 SOLO. It was a me, my toddler and my baby road trip. Simply Dad has commitments back at home, so I loaded up the kids for a 700 km (435 miles) road trip from Prince George to Vancouver. Without children, we typically do this trip in about 8 hours. With Little Man, I usually averaged 9-10 hours. With 2 under 2, it took me 11 hours.

I asked on Facebook for some pro-tips for traveling with 2 under 2, or toddlers in general and got some GREAT ideas. Fans reminded me a baby road trip is the most difficult component, while the toddler is easily a movie monster. I could tell you what worked for us, I would much rather tell you about my mistakes.

My Road trip Mistakes with 2 Under 2

1. BUY MORE SNACKS. Buy double what you think you need for the trip.
   • I ran out of adult-approved snacks on my trip.There was only fruit squeeze pouches left in the cooler (and some weird nacho popcorn chips I did not like the flavor of).
   • You *think* you have enough food, but something about a road trip results in mindless eating from everyone involved.
   • If you’re really rocking life, check out these amazing and easy road trip snacks!
2. Car Seat Cup Holders. I thought cup holders for car seats were ridiculous. Now I understand why you need them. Children need to stay hydrated.
   • I finished off 3 water bottles, so naturally my toddler got upset when his water cup fell on the floor
   • I’ll be picking up an expensive matching cup holder for my toddler this week.
3. Take advantage of Washrooms. This mistake is a little complicated. I made the mistake of not using the washroom when we were all out of the van exploring.
   • I needed to go pee and had to purposefully unload all the children.Whereas, if I had gone pee at the previous rest stop when we were running and stretching our legs… we would not have needed this stop or runway child.
     
4. ALWAYS use a baby containment device.
   • During our second leg stretch, I opted to leave the stroller AND carrier in the vehicle. This left me to chase my toddler while holding my newborn. I don’t have that many hands. Always have options to contain at least one child. I had to place her in a safe spot on the grass and try to climb over/under a fence my toddler escaped thru as he was darting towards a body of water.
5. Nap Time Fails. I don’t have any advice on how to overcome this situation, but my baby wanted to sleep when my toddler didn’t and vice versa.I tried to wake her up during the first break but she straight up refused and then wanted to be awake later while the toddler wanted to nap. This resulted in a very broken up car ride. From 1pm to 6:30pm, we stopped every 40 minutes to soothe a distraught and frustrated baby (was it the elevations, tiredness, diaper, hunger? who knows?)
6. Get Gas when Kids are awake – Nothing worse than having to pull over, stop the vehicle and get gas when the children are finally sleeping! I should have filled up at 1/2 tank when we stopped to run, but I didn’t. I should have, and then I wouldn’t have needed to when everyone was almost asleep.

6 Road trip Successes

1. Downloaded my favorite parenting pod cast ever – Atomic Moms
2. Bought Little Man a holder for iPad to watch movies on.
3. Didn’t have a plan but to get there eventually.
4. Stopped and stretched our legs every couple of hours.
5. Packed enough snacks and a lunch to survive (but the oreos were gone in 2.5 hours, so I felt I needed more. .
6. Used a Funky Fluff Hanging Wet Bag for all my garbage

 

My Toddler & Baby Road Trip Reality

It took us longer than ‘normal,’ but we had a blast. We left at 7:30 after grabbing a coffee and muffin for the road. I drove until the toddler started to squawk. My girl friend reminded me of a great nature reserve about 2.5 hours. This was an awesome lunch explore and Little Man checked out the trails for a solid hour before we hit the road again. 45 minutes later Little Miss decided she wanted to eat (despite numerous attempts before loading up) and we had another 45 minute run around.

Then we drove with interrupted breaks. This was the part of the trip I wanted my toddler to nap, but he kept failing at meeting that expectation. Several mini stops and crying later (from everyone) we had ice cream at Dairy Queen, before trying again. Little Man finally napped, but Litte Miss wasn’t happy. Any time my ears popped from elevation changes she would just holler (I forgot soothers, we don’t really do soothers, but this might have been a good time to reintroduce it). Anytime I stopped the car to soothe her, my toddler would wake up. You can see the cycle. We finally made it to our destination around 6:30pm. Not bad timing, I was thinking we would be getting to our destination around 8pm, so I nailed this.

I do wish I had been more patient with Little Man and tried to kind of stick to our routine. Perhaps if I turned off the shows a little more it would have gone differently. Perhaps if I tried to get Little Miss to cooperate it would have gone differently. She’s fed on demand, and I’m not much a schedule person. Needless, everyone is sleeping and tomorrow is a new day.

I can’t wait to go somewhere again! We’ve got our new van for exploring, and I miss traveling.

Tell me about your road trip experience! Have you done one with kids? Or are you terrified?