I love road trips, though bringing a small child on a road trip was not something I had fully appreciated. A couple weeks ago I decided to try it out - three days of driving with my three and a half year old son. I knew he had handled several hours in the car before and so I figured we could make it work. I also had my secret weapon of a portable DVD player.
The first day included a plane trip and three hours in the car. It worked out fine except for the potty break at a gas station with a clogged toilet - not a pretty sight. Day two started off fine with my son's favorite breakfast of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream - mmmm yum.
We got under way and I handed over the DVD player to distract him until his nap. Ordinarily this would have been just the answer, but apparently watching a DVD while daddy is driving on a windy mountain road is not a good combination. I won't go into details, but after half an hour on the side of the road cleaning up, I felt like I got lucky. And this was after only the first hour of an eight hour day in the car.
We did make it to our destination that day - with unspeakable agreements made between father and son - and in the end I learned an important lesson - no matter how good the deal is on a hotel, don't book in advance on a road trip with a small child.
