At times when you are a single mother it may seem that you live in your car. Between work, shuttling the kids to school, day care and after school activities you may see more of the inside of your car than your home.
Not all trips with children are a joy, let’s face it, babies cry, toddlers get cranky and older children get moody. Unfortunately there really is no way to reduce the amount of time spent in the car unless you restrict your children’s activities. Since we don’t want to do that, we have to find ways to make it at least tolerable.
I think the most important thing is to make sure you can keep your children from getting overly hungry. Hungry kids are cranky kids. I always had a backpack in the car that had granola bars, fruit snacks and fruit in it. I could just grab a couple bottles of water as we were leaving the house and keep Hailey happier without having to stop and feed her fast food. Healthier for both of us and better for my wallet.
Also keep toys in the car that are only played with in the car. There are many bags you can buy that hook on the front seat to store the toys in, or you can make one. If these toys and books are only played with in the car the kids won’t be bored with them.
Don’t forget the car games you played as a child, finding license plates or blue cars or letters of the alphabet on signs. As annoying as it can be sometimes, kid friendly music can make all the difference. When Hailey was little her favorite was Raffi and we would sing Baby Beluga at the top of our lungs. People thought I was crazy but a happy, singing child in a car seat beats a whining one any day.
Make sure you have a book or a small project to work on during the times you will inevitably have to wait. Losing yourself in a book, even for a few minutes, can make the car ride home more bearable.