Thanks so much to everyone who shared their ideas, activity tips and recommendations for how to keep kids occupied on a looooong car trip. It’s so much fun — and quite helpful — to find solutions to our parenting dilemmas from each other!
To offer a little extra incentive for participating, we gave you a chance to win food for your thoughts. We selected three people at RANDOM who posted comments and those 
three moms won gift certificates for a nice dinner on the town, courtesy of NWARestaurants.com.
The gift cards for Ruth’s Chris, Bonefish Grill and Carrabba’s Italian restaurant go to the following lucky mamas …
- Heidi McDilash – Ruth’s Chris
- Stacy Combs – Bonefish Grill
- Scarlett Daniels – Carrabba’s
So e-mail us Heidi, Stacy and Scarlett and we’ll get your address to send over your gift certificates! If you missed her answer in the original Food for Thoughts post (link), Heidi — along with some other travel-savvy moms — suggested bringing along plastic, dinner-type trays for each child to hold pencils, crayons and books. Brilliant! This mom of four (ages 11, 7, 4 and 2) also advised bringing child-friendly, sing-along CDs to keep little mouths singing a happy tune.
Stacy advised picking up DVDs for $1 at Redbox (at various McDonald’s, Walmart and Wal-Green locations). She’ll pick up a movie in one state and return it in another. Then her kids can pick out a new one at the drop-off location. Smart mama! Stacy also gives her kids a roll of quarters which are confiscated one at a time if they misbehave. If they have any left when the trip’s over, they get to use them at a fun game place.
Scarlett was among a variety of well-traveled moms who suggested bringing along a cache of inexpensive toys and treats to dole out along the way. On their last 12-hour car trip (yikes), her 4 and 6-year-old children were so excited to get the next treat that they would behave until the next surprise. As some of the moms pointed out, you should save a few of the new toys for the trip home!
Congrats to our winning moms and thanks to all who commented. We got a LOT of good ideas for our driving trips this summer. We hope you did, too. Happy traveling!
I love Stacy’s idea of the roll of quarters! It gives them plenty of chances to “forget” they’re supposed to be good, while still leaving some for next time, and a visual reminder of their behavior throughout!