2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

I take a lot of long car rides with my 2 year old. We have a house in Lake George that we travel to almost every other weekend in the summer. It's about a 3 hour drive for us. DS is a bit of a pain when it comes to the car...he doesnt even last 20 minutes before getting restless. He needs constant entertainment from either myself or my BF, toys dont seem to keep him occupied, snacks work but only for a limited amount of time, and I feel like we're always turning around trying to amuse him or help him play so he wont scream or wiggle his way out of his seat. I mean literally if I dont pay attention to him for 3 minutes the kid is screaming...

What works for your children? How can I get him to learn to independently play, sit quietly, amuse himself, etc. Are there any toys that you find work best? I just got a portable DVD player and I'm hoping that helps a bit but I dont have high hopes...

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

Laurie Berkner CD usually works for DD1. Friends swear by the DVD player though. DD1 also uses her Mobigo in the car, it's interactive enough that it occupies her.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

I brought DD a tablet. Her tablet is set up for games, tv shows (micky, gabba, bubble guppies, elmo, etc..), music. I havn't taken a long road trip with it but that would be my answer.

Toys R Us has a andorid tablet for 170 bucks now.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

I'd love to know as well. My DS hates being in the car - it's always a struggle & I'm scared for him to hold/play with anything hard. God forbid he hits himself with it or something.. yeah, i'm so paranoid.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

My mom had mentionned that when we were kids we loved those interactive books...they had like buttons and stuff. ANyone know where I can find these?

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

Jim sits back there with her. He keeps her entertained. They have all sorts of games on his cell phone (or mine), flash cards, memory games, other kid friendly games. So tablet would be similar.

Only on trips more than 2hrs long do we take a DVD player but so far we haven't had to use it. We used it when we drove up to see my dad and each leg of the trip was around 12hrs long.

Good Luck!

I can say its always a mosh posh of whatever works for that moment. Its never the same. we have toys galore in the car as proof of previous attempts. Sometimes just locking the door (yes the child lock is on) is fun for her. She'll get a good half hour of giggles out of him unlocking and her locking it with her toe.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

Posted by Xelindrya

Sometimes just locking the door (yes the child lock is on) is fun for her. She'll get a good half hour of giggles out of him unlocking and her locking it with her toe.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

We don't travel that long but both DS love our gabba CDs and children's nursery rhymes along with laurie berkner CDs. I think they started to like them bc they recognized them from hearing them on tv or he songs from singing them.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

is he forward facing? that will likely make a big difference.

We spend most of the car time identifying cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, red cars, blue cars, white cars, trees, etc.

Re: 2 year old hates car rides - tell me your tricks

I put toddler lock on my cell phone and sometimes he plays with that. I also put movies on my old ipod for him and he watches them. You can lock it so they can only watch it and not mess with it.