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If you’re like me, you’re the Mom (or Dad) Taxi, and you’re in the car most of the day every day of the week. Now I know what my mom went through when my sisters and I were younger. Running around town, getting one kid to this event and hustling over to the next event to pick a kid up. There are times when I don’t even get a chance to grab something to drink, let alone eat lunch.
Ever wonder how you can make your time in the car more pleasant, or at least less stressful? Here are my Top 10 Tips on how to make being “on-the-go” more enjoyable:
- Make sure you write down your itinerary before you leave the house. Do you know how many times I got back home, only to remember that I was supposed to go the Post Office, or to pick up a prescription.
- Make sure each child has a small backpack or purse to carry essentials in, like a snack or drink box. This makes your load lighter and the kids will learn personal responsibility.
- Keep age appropriate toys or books in the car for those times that you have to jump in the car and go. There have been many times that I forgot to bring a toy to keep my little one busy and was saved by the portable “toy box” in the car.
- Make sure that you have wet wipes in the car at all times. If you’re in the south like I am, you’ll have to replace the container in the summer because they dry out, but they can be a lifesaver in a “sticky” situation.
- Make sure you think about the types of snacks you’re packing. There’s nothing worse than realizing that the candy that your 5-year-old wants to eat in the backseat is all liquid. Yeah, he wants to eat it anyway!
- Keep extra straws and napkins in the car. Of everything that they could possibly forget to give you in the drive-through of a fast food place, these are the 2 most common.
- Keep a spare beach or bathroom towel in the car, especially in the summer. Down here in the south, the temperature in the car can get way over 120 degrees when you’re out of the car. At least one seat will be in the hot sun, and the beach towel on that hot seat will help you make sure you don’t have to sit around waiting for the seat to cool down.
- If you’re using GPS, make sure you put all of the addresses in as soon as you get in the car. For one, you don’t want to have to worry about it after each stop. And second, you need to make sure you scan it for correctness. I hate it when it takes me around the world and back, but there’s no one to blame but me if I didn’t check it ahead of time.
- You’ve probably already seen this in my Twizzlers Travel post, but you should create a boredom bag before leaving the house. Even though you might have an emergency bag in the car to keep the kids busy, they’ll get bored with that pretty quick if you make them play with the same old stuff over an over again.
- And last, but not least, bring along a Seattle’s Best Iced Mocha to cool you down in the summer heat, and give you a boost! (Can you tell this is my favorite tip?)
More info on Seattle’s Best Coffee: http://www.seattlesbest.com
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Disclosure: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Seattle’s Best Coffee blogging program for a gift card worth $30. For more information on how you can participate, click here.
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- Our Twizzlers Dream Vacation (pmispa.wordpress.com)
