Question Keeping young children entertained on long drives

DS2 has a 3 hour time limit in his car seat, after 3 hours he screams bloody murder until he is out of the seat. We are driving 16 hours over 2 days, first day will be mostly at night, to my sister's wedding in 2 weeks. How can I keep him entertained if we aren't able to stop every 3 hours for a break?

Really, everyone should stop every 2 hours in order to stretch, etc. It's better for you, prevents DVTs, etc.

If that's not possible, I don't know what to tell you. He's probably very uncomfortable after 2 hours in the same position without getting up to move; I know I get uncomfortable after 2 hours and need a few minutes to walk around! You can try coloring, snacks, etc. if you just need to go another fifteen minutes to get to a good stopping place, but other than that, I can't really think of anything, sorry.

Things you don't normally allow him to have or do. Things that you might hate that he does but that you can deal with so he doesn't scream. For example, my mom hates to feed me or my bro junk food. But we did a lot of driving during one vacation when we were younger and she bought us cinnamon toast crunch. I could practically see her cringing every time we ate some but she was willing to use it to keep us happy.

Forgo the nap for the day, leave at bedtime and driver as long as possible while he sleeps?

When DS gets antsy in the car I pull up a movie on my phone, lock the keys and give it to him to watch. It usually buys me some additional time. He does better if someone can sit by him and entertain him. Is that an option?

Recently I drove a trip home with DS (17mo), by myself, over two days. It's longer than the drive you're intending to do, and it wasn't fun, but we did okay.

When we travel:
- I do stop approximately every 2 hours and take a break. Sometimes that meant a stop of just a few minutes, but enough to let him run around, nurse or have a snack, and get back in. I can actually travel faster without DH along because he's the one that takes forever to get going again. I still make good time, and I pack along food and anything else we might need, aside from the gas.
- I leave very early so he'll sleep some of the first part of the day. I stop for the night by dinner time to let him run and burn some energy off before the next day
- lots of toys, I picked up a little box of 25 toy animals at a garage sale and brought them out randomly. I also pulled toys out of his stash 2 weeks in advance so he hadn't seen them in a while
- snacks...I hate letting him eat in his seat because he likes to mush things into the cover, but I let it go and just don't give him anything that might become sticky when traveling
- post-it notes, for playing with and sticking to things

Good luck!

Not sure how to multi-quote

He's dropped his nap already :thumbsdown: and my boys are night owls, bed time is 10pm with DS1 waking up on his own at 7:30am and DS2 waking sometime around 9am.

I would love to stop every 2 hours to strecth, it would be nice. The problem with that is the quick, less than 30 minutes, in and out. When we stop for a break it would have to be more than an hour.

My cell phone is old school that it does nothing but actual phone calls Plus I would have to place it some way that both boys could watch, I RF and one FF.

I will try snacks, colouring, picture books, and toys I'll go pull out of rotation now. I wish I had a video player of some sorts.

Blah, I am NOT looking forward to this drive.

Movies, Color Wonder markers. Snacks. And like others said drive as much as you possible can during the night.

We bought this for a very long trip we took: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Star-Kids-Snack-Play-Travel/dp/B000KJBFC8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1315875247&sr=8-3"]Amazon.com: Star Kids Snack and Play Travel Tray: Baby[/ame] It was nice to have. It buckles around (doesn't interfere with anything on the carseat) and it was very soft, I didn't worry about it being a projectile or a kid getting hurt if they banged their face on it. But, it is an add on and technically not approved. Certainly a parental decision. With that said, I'm not sure how useful it would be with a 2 year old, but thought it was worth mentioning.

ETA: I read that they dropped their naps. I would wear your boys out before putting them in the car. Run them around as much as you can, put them in comfy light jammies for the drive and make sure their lovies are accessible. I'd also get a really calming cd that the boys like. A really likes Raffi and it seems to be calming for her. We also have some classical cds. A doesn't nap anymore, but when she's in the car for a couple of hours she always gets drowsy. Maybe your boys will be the same.

We did a 20+ hour drive halfway across the country at least once or twice a year while we were in the Marines, with two kids.

The biggest hit with the boys (anywhere from 1 to 4 years of age) was MAPS. We'd pick up the freebies every other state or so (whenever we stopped tried to make it at the tourist info ones) and they LOVED those...my then 3.5 year old "read" me the map for 2 hours straight on one leg of the trip! That time was extreme, but usually the maps were good for 20+ mins of entertainment. They "read" them, looked for different color lines on them, drew on them, shredded them (in the case of the 1.5 year old), etc. Just make sure you have multiples, because if your kids are like mine, they'll want new ones when they accidentally rip one

Also popular were coloring "books"...I printed online coloring pages of their favorite characters, or whatever they were interested in, punched holes in them and put them in a 3 ring binder (gave them something sturdy to color on). I also included blank pages for coloring/scribbling. I usually had plenty of crayons and colored pencils on hand too, and they each got their own brand-new box of crayons before we headed out.

For the young, young ones I did random small toys, as well as plenty of snacks and drinks (plenty of snacks and drinks for the older ones too).

Also, we travel in the most comfy clothes possible...usually light sweatpants and tshirt, and they travel with whatever they take to bed with them every night. Even when they were past naps, they would typically fall asleep for at least an hour after lunch.

When we drove over two days, we always stopped at a late-ish (7 pm or so) supper time so they had plenty of time to run off energy. Other than that, and an hour long break for lunch (at state park/rest area type thing with outdoor playground, again to run off energy) stops were very short, just long enough to get gas and everyone to potty. If we did the drive in one day we usually still did a late-ish supper around 7, but stopped for an hour then too, and put everyone in pajamas before we got back on the road.

We stop at parks and playgrounds. It's a longer stop, but if we manage to wear him out, my non-napper *will* fall asleep. DH and I eat our lunch or dinner while kiddo runs while. I prepare his food and we climb back into the car. He eats and passes out for a good long while. The stops are necessary, anyhow, because I have too many food allergies and cannot eat out, so we have to stop and haul out the cooler (and sometimes the camp stove).

I have fibromyalgia and sciatica must stop to stretch every couple hours. It's non-negotiable. If I don't do it, I get to the point where being in the car one more minute is *not* possible.

Sixteen hours is a LOT for just two days. :/ I've done it and flew the next two times we had to make the trip. Doing it again in November, but my son tolerates the car now, so it'll be okay aside from the umpteen million potty breaks.

Things we've done:
iPod Touch loaded with games and movies
snacks, snacks, snacks
books, magazines, coloring (baking sheets make good trays)
maps
dollar store toys (in a box up front, individually wrapped, driver tosses one back every so often)
silly putty
Leap Tag system
adult in back seat to entertain with hours of ridiculous singalongs

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

16 hours is long for 2 days, but we don't really have much choice in the matter. The day we were planning on leaving happens to be the day of my U/S so that pushed departer later, and we're single income with no vacy time for DH. I wish flying was cheaper within Canada, but at $129 plus all the taxes and fees for a single one way ticket is just nuts.