If you have young children, kit your car out with…

A guest post by Elliebaby–  ” I’m a Mum of 4 children under 7. Married to a Church of England Priest, busy juggling other peoples lives. I used to manage the day services at a charity supporting adults with learning disabilities. Now I am a stay at home parent due to my own severe post natal depression and my eldest son’s complicated health needs. Not sure I actually have a life of my own at the moment as so busy managing the rest of my family’s…but I am slowly carving bits of time back for myself. “*-

The previous post  If you have young children, don’t leave the house without…  got me thinking, what essentials do I have in my car for easing the car journeys with under 5s.  Here’s my list:

1, An old towel

This is useful for a number of reasons…

• Place on a car seat for small potty training bottoms to sit on if you are unsure whether they will last until the next loo stop (…or if they already haven’t lasted!)
• Used to wipe down damp slides and swings at playgrounds. Also wiping buggy wheels before it goes back in the car ( Not that I do this… as  you can tell by the mud stains on the sides of my car’s boot)
• Use to sit on damp grass whilst waiting the end of football matches
• It is great for drying wet legs that have inadvertently jumped in puddles or paddling pools that you didn’t know existed.
• Wrap up soiled or sick clothes so the smell doesn’t reverberate around your car until you get home
• Used as a sunshade over a buggy or to cover cold children
• And I’m sure many other things.

 2, Sachets of calpol (or other pain relief)

A couple of these in the glove box are great for those emergencies when your child shoots a temperature whilst out, has a fall and complains of pain. That’s when there’s never a shop nearby that sells them!

3, A torch (with spare batteries)

Apart from the obvious type of emergency, torches also have several other uses:

• Great for those times when you’re getting home late with sleeping children and need to find your front door key fast.
• Fab for searching under the car, down drains, in hedgerows, for that elusive set of keys, toy, bouncing ball they can’t possible leave without…
• Use for games whilst stuck in a traffic queue, playing under the old towel if its daytime!

 4, Money

You never know when you will forget to get petrol and the light comes on just when you leave the house without your purse. We try to keep a (small) note and some loose change stashed out of sight in the car.

Also good for ice creams, emergency drinks** or money for Mrs. Whatsit’s leaving present that ‘must be given in today Mummy’ and those ‘forgotten the dinner money’ days..

5, Liquid hand foam

You know those small bottles you can get to use without soap? One of those. For post ‘less than clean’ public toilet visits, emergency nappy changes, for ’Mummy he’s playing with that dog poo’  or pre-picnics clean up.

6, A plastic bag

Used as a sick bag, to put in dirty clothes, rubbish (just to make the car a little less tip like), nappies, or all those little knick-knacks children pick up enroute and can’t possibly leave behind.

7, Music and story CDs

There comes a point in every parents life that you put on a children’s music or story cd in the car, and whilst inwardly cringing, enjoy the change from grottiness and squabbling to utter angelic passengers. This works on long or short journeys. We have submitted to in car DVDs for longer journeys but still use CDs as well.

Just so I don’t have to put up with baabaa black sheep constantly I have also starting getting my children into music that I like. …makes for happier travelling for all of us.

 This is probably the best of the bunch for me in terms of ease, helpfulness and not taking up too much space.

**if you weren’t paying attention to previous post

…What are your firm favourites for easing a car trip?…

*You can follow Elliebaby on twitter @Elliebaby2003