What Every Mom Needs to Know If You are Taking a Roadtrip with an 18 Month Old

If you are planning on taking a road trip with babies, then here is your need to know list:
(We learned this the hard way after taking the 24-hour road trip to and from Utah for my Grandpa's funeral.)

1. Practice with your toddler before the trip watching TV, lots of TV. Expose them to so many different age-appropriate shows that they are addicted to watching movies. Although your doctor, and really any good mom, does not agree with this, it is a must if you are traveling on a long road trip.

2. As you practice watching TV, teach your toddler to use ear phones. If you try ear phones for the first time in the car, then they will pull them off and probably break them. Without earphones, the whole car gets to enjoy the beautiful sounds of Sesame Street, Barney and Curious George over and over and over again!

3. Along with practicing watching TV, watch lots of movies. In a 24-hour road trip, it is much more enjoyable if the toddler can watch a Disney movie. This entertains for two hours versus 30 minutes and the adults enjoy these too (somewhat). Since a toddler's attention-span can only last a few minutes, practice makes perfect. Remember watch a lot of movies at home. (Again, doctors and any good mom would disagree, but movies really would have made the car ride more enjoyable.)

4. Buy lots of movies before the trip (although if you are following the above rules you will have a nice collection and probably a couch potato, unhealthy toddler.) If you only have one Barney movie, one Sesame Street movie, and one Curious George movie, then you are likely to go crazy and have the movies memorized!

5. Having another kid in the car provides more entertainment for your toddler. It is best if this kid is older so that when the toddler falls asleep, they can put in their earphones, watch a movie, and let the toddler get the much needed sleep (and the adults get a reprieve.) If you do put two toddlers together, they will entertain each other. The down side is, that there will be no sleeping in the car. When one falls asleep, the other wakes them up within 30 minutes. No sleep equals screaming!

6. Buy earplugs for yourself. At some point there will be screaming because your toddler will be so excited about this new experience, they will not sleep!!! If the toddler isn't sleeping then no one is sleeping (except my dad who can sleep through Dallin poking at his glasses and saying "eye.")

7. Do not under any circumstances (even if your doctor has told you to) take away pacifiers before a trip. A pacifier, or plug, is a must for long trips. If you have rules such as pacifiers can only be used during sleeping, throw that out the window. Pacifiers must be used at all times so even if you are in the process of breaking the habit, give in. It is the best and only way.

8. If you are traveling with a group, switch adults around especially grandma (and grandpa too if he is awake). The car with a four year old who watches movies with earphones and a sweet angel princess should not have grandma to themselves. (I'm not bitter or anything.) :)

9. Actually, scratch number 8. Put all the babies in one car with one person, and everyone else in the other car. Rotate the person and driver who are with the babies out after a couple of hours as they will have a massive headache.

10. And finally, insist on driving. Driving means not entertaining one year olds for 24 hours. People who insist on driving make you feel like they are doing a favor for you, but really, they get the break from non stop entertainment.

Follow the above rules and maybe your long road trip will be better then ours!!!