Are we nearly there yet?

A couple of months ago I took part in a survey organised by Parkdean holidays about travelling with children and they have just released the results entitled are we nearly there yet, with some interesting results.

The top tip is to take a pack of ginger biscuits, to help relieve hunger and travel sickness.  I have to admit that I haven’t thought of this before, but will take some on future travels as we have had a couple of instances of travel sickness recently which seems to be caused by gaming in the car.

Because of this we have now banned gaming in the car, but so ensure we have films loaded on the iPad for the little ones to watch on long journeys.

I have given up trying to listen to the radio or my CD’s now as I seem to get overruled, so if you see that Mum doing her best “Let it Go” moves whilst stopped traffic lights, that will be me!

If Kian is in the car, he dons his headphones and listens to his noise music.  He has become very accomplished at zoning out the little ones, but forget trying to get him to do anything as he won’t answer you.

The current favourite game is the good old-fashioned I-Spy.  It normally starts off fairly well and then deteriorates into a giggle fest as we desperately search for the answer.  Isaac’s favourite one to use is “S” we go through everything we can see, desperately scanning the road / car for an idea, nothing being right so we ask for the answer………

SMARTYPANTS!

Eliza on the other hand, at three, usually says something along the times of “I-Spy with my little eye, something beginning with…………Sky”

As you can imagine this does get wearing at times!

One of our other favourite games is “Yellow car”.  It is easy to play, simply spot a yellow car and say it first.  The person who sees the most yellow cars by the end of the journey is the winner.  It gets very competitive!

My top tips for family travel are:

• Be prepared – make sure you charge an electricals, pack drinks, snacks, charging cables and toys for them to play with
• Plan you route – know where you are going and don’t trust satnav with your life.  We have Doris the satnav who loves to use the words “recalculating” and Dave, the nav on my iPhone likes to use “return to route”
• Make sure the kids use the loo before you leave the house, even if they are adamant they don’t need to, as you can guarantee they will once you are all loaded in the car!
• Take a break every couple of hours and let everyone stretch their legs.  Some motorway services even have play parks these days

For more great tips, watch the “Are we nearly there yet” video put together by Parkdean below or follow the hashtag #arewenearlythereyet