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The Parents' Guide to Happy Car Journeys by Professor Tanya Byron

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THE PARENTS' GUIDE TO HAPPY CAR JOURNEYS: How not to be a Carstrophobic parent.



This guide offers advice on simple, cheap and effective ways to keep children entertained and happy on long car journeys. Plan your journey creatively and reap the rewards as you arrive at your holiday destination without the familiar stress and tension that can result from lengthy travel-time cooped together in a car.

DISTRACTION


Being cooped up in a small space for a long time is no fun for anyone – especially kids who need physical freedom as part of their daily routine.  Frustrated kids can become agitated and start to lash out at each other in order to vent their physical frustrations.  

A new survey by Peugeot has highlighted how at around 29 minutes into the journey, children start to get restless and less than two minutes later, tempers can begin to flare.  To avoid this occurring, use distraction activities a useful way to steer behaviour away from the fights and into something fun. Set some challenges:

•    Who can count backwards in threes from 100
•    Who can spot 15 green cars first
•    Who can tell the funniest story that includes the words: pot hole; rubber ring; cow bell; frying pan.
•    Start singing funny family songs – If you’re happy and you know it!; Head, shoulders knees and toes!; Clementine.
•    Give everyone a large piece of aluminium foil and set design challenges: who can make the best hat/ jewellery/ animal/ mask.


COMMUNICATION


Living our fast paces and time starved lives we often do not have enough time to really talk to our nearest and dearest.  Recent research indicates that while family time spent together is on the increase, the quality of that time is compromised by high paced task-focussed lives and separate activities, even when we are all under one roof.

Being together in a car presents time to find out about each other, share news, solve problems and generally catch up.

However, some families have got out of the habit of communicating with each other and so struggle to start conversations.  The following is a creative way to get discussion flowing:

•    Starter topics – write different questions on bits of paper and put them in a large envelope.  Each person pulls out a piece of paper and answers the question; e.g. funniest recent thing that happened, something that made me feel sad, the best day I recently had, something that I felt proud about.


RELAXATION


We go on holiday to rest, recuperate and recharge.  For many families the lead up to holiday-time is fraught with getting things done is order to have time away with no demands.  A car journey can offer the time and space to begin the process of relaxation and provide the time to begin to unwind.

•    Before the holiday get every family member to nominate their most relaxing songs and tunes – burn them onto a CD and listen to them together.
•    Download relaxation tracks designed for kids as well as adults.  These tracks talk through muscular relaxation exercises that can be done sitting up.
•    Download creative visualisation tracks that tell a story and enables the listener to use their imagination to float away and visualise themselves in a calm and tranquil place.
•    Download story tapes of books that have become family favourite films.



HAVING FUN!


Rather than dread the journey ahead - see it as a time to have a laugh together by playing games.  Some games might be nostalgically remembered from the pre in-car film system/ PSP/ Nintendo days when mum and dad were kids and had to amuse themselves on a long journey!

•    Backseat bingo – create bingo grids with pictures of things that could be seen on a journey (e.g. a bridge, sheep, a river etc.).  The winner shouts ‘Bingo!’ when they have seen and maked off everything in their grid.
•    Car – e – oke – burn a disc or a mp3 of all the family’s favourite songs without lyrics.  Create song sheets of the lyrics and have a family sing-a-long.
•    It’s not a laughing matter – one person keeps a straight face while everyone else tries to make them laugh.  The winner is the person who keeps their face straight the longest.
•    Twenty questions – write the names of famous people, places, books, films, animals etc. on post-it notes and each person sticks one on their head.  Take it in turns to ask a maximum of 20 questions (that can only be answered yes/ no) to try and work out what is on your post-it note.  The winner guesses correctly with the least questions.
•    The supermarket game – the first person says: “I went to the supermarket and I bought….” and ends with an item that starts with the letter ‘A’.  Everyone follows by repeating the items said before them and adding their own which must begin with the next letter of the alphabet. A forgotten item means the game starts all over again. A great test of memory.
•    The numberplate game – call out the letters at the end of a number plate and everyone tries to think of the funniest phrase to incorporate those letters.
•    Endless endings – choose a theme (e.g. clothing) and in turn each person names an article of clothing BUT their word must begin with the last letter of the previous one (i.e. haT=>TrouserS =>Shirt etc.).


Find out more about the Peugeot family car range or Peugeot’s versatile Tepee range.



Tanya Byron is a chartered clinical psychologist, with twenty years’ experience working both privately and for the NHS. A Professor in the Public Understanding of Science, with an honorary doctorate from the University of York, Tanya is also the Chancellor of Edge Hill University, a clinician, journalist, author and broadcaster.