Important Tips for Road Trips with Kids

Today my mom and I took my twin nieces, Allison and Ashley (age 6), to Alabama to see my grandparents. The trip is just over and hour and a half, but you can imagine all the things that could happen in and hour and a half with two kids in the backseat of a Toyota Camry. Yikes! Oddly enough, the drive was relatively uneventful, with only a few occasional whines and no big skirmishes . I account our success to two things. If you are a parent or if you aspire to be one- TAKE NOTES!

1) Con your kids into asking Santa for a portable DVD player for Christmas. Today we watched The Wild Thornberry's, Strawberry Shortcake, and Jimmy Neutron on the drive to bamaland.(Also might be important to con your kids into family movies that you will enjoy as well, and not Strawberry Shortcake or nicktoons. Disney movies are much more entertaining to adults- wouldn't you agree?) I can assure you, it was the most peaceful hour and a half ever spent with these two in a car. Thank you God for modern technology!

2)If that fails, stop and buy some benadryl! It's quite a beautiful medicine. You can practically give it to kids anytime you want them to go to sleep, and it's totally safe. Besides, kids always have runny noses!
The bottle we bought didn't have a measuring cup so I just gave them a capful on the drive up. That didn't do anything. On the way home I gave them two capfuls, and they were out! For future reference, I would recommend one and a half capfuls. The girls were a little groggy after an hour long nap.

Really, I love kids! Especially Allison and Ashley. They are getting so big, and today they read me Green Eggs and Ham. I was one proud aunt. (tear, tear)