Tips and tricks for taking young children on a road trip
Mummy and Daddy Daycare are the pseudonyms of a Singaporean husband and wife who are raising two young boys aged four and one, nicknamed Barnacles and Kwazii.
Get into the minds of this couple who describe parenthood as a lifetime adventure – you are always learning something new! Whoever said parenting was a walk in the park?
In late 2016, we toyed with the idea of taking a flight to Kuala Lumpur for a short holiday which was a tried-and-tested route as we had visited once before. After much deliberation, we decided to be a bit more adventurous and take a road trip with Kwazii, our eight-month-old now one-year-old, and four-year-old Barnacles.
As it was our first time and we were somewhat jittery about spending several hours in the car with two young kids in another country, we decided to drive to Malacca which was a considerably shorter drive of less than four hours (about 235km) versus five hours (about 330km) to Kuala Lumpur. We’ve listed some tips that we found useful in our road trip experience and that we hope will help first-time road trippers with young kids perhaps looking to take a quick trip to Malaysia during the upcoming Lunar New Year weekend.
Research. Do background searches on the route you will be taking, toll costs, rest stops, and estimated time between each rest stop. For our trip to Malacca, we stopped only once (at the 1.5 hours mark) for a half-hour snack and toilet break. We also borrowed a GPS system to guide us on the route there.
Opt to leave Singapore early. We woke Barnacles for breakfast at 4am, departed home by 5am and reached the Tuas checkpoint before 6am. Thankfully, it was not crowded and we had a smooth start to the trip – we definitely did not want to be stuck in a two-hour causeway jam with two young kids in the car.
Always stay connected. Before we left on our trip, we subscribed to a Singtel data roam saver plan that provided 1GB data in Malaysia for a reasonable $10. This came in extremely handy, especially when we arrived in Malacca as our GPS kept sending us in circles and we could not locate our hotel. Eventually, we relied on trusty Google maps that got us to our destination safe and sound. It was also great to be connected while on the go in Malacca. Remember to charge your phone and have a backup powerbank, as using Google maps drains the phone battery really quickly.
Don’t sweat the stuff you can’t control. On our first leg of the drive, which lasted 1.5 hours, Kwazii cried in the car seat for a large part of the way. Halfway through that leg, we wondered why we had decided to do this, given his dislike for the car seat at that young age. He had just been fed, and did not have a dirty diaper, so we concluded that he was just tired. The saying that kids will be lulled to sleep in a moving car totally did not apply. We found that a toy with sound and lights worked quite successfully at distracting him from crying, and luckily, he fell asleep for most of the second leg of the drive. Thankfully at the current age of four and one, both our kids are much better behaved in their car seats!
Get a Touch-and-Go card. This is necessary when clearing Malaysia customs and for the numerous toll stations along the north-south highway. If you don’t already own a card, be sure to look out for the lane on the left to purchase and top up the card. Also remember to double-check your receipt after making your top-up payment to ensure the correct amount has been credited.
Rest well the night before you depart. Try to get the kids to bed early for a good rest too. It’s definitely better to begin a road trip with everyone in a good mood and not have to deal with 5am temper tantrums.
Get insurance – both for car and travel. We also had our 1.6l sedan fully checked and serviced before the trip as we definitely didn’t want to be left stranded in the middle of a Malaysian highway with two children.
Pack (slightly) more essentials than you think you’ll need. For parents like us, these ‘essentials’ included water, snacks for Barnacles (we had dried fruit, cereal puffs, grapes, cheese and some bite sized biscuits), a couple of books, a magnetic board with vehicle magnets, sheets of stickers and a sticker album to occupy him during the journey. We also loaded the iPad with his favourite shows Fireman Sam and Paw Patrol. We always pack our usual vitamins, first aid kit, and basic medicine – paracetamol, chlorpheniramine, cetirizine, and inhaler as Barnacles is prone to wheezing if he falls ill.
Prepare the kids for the long drive by getting them involved. Barnacles was responsible for putting the toys he wanted to bring into his small backpack. He took the drive surprisingly well – talking excitedly at the beginning of the journey, staring out the window as the sun started to rise, then playing with some of the entertainment we had brought, dozing off for a bit and watching a few short videos before we arrived in Malacca. We hardly heard ‘Are we there yet?’ throughout the long drive – even though we hear this all the time in Singapore during much shorter drives.
After we returned from the four-day trip, I asked Barnacles what his favourite part of the holiday was. In all earnest, he told me ‘the hotel room’ which made me do a double take. Given, we did have a lot of fun in the room with all the toys he had brought, and there was also the novelty of ordering room service and eating in the room, something he doesn’t get to do at home. But perhaps we should consider going for a fuss-free Singapore staycation next time.
