The holidays looming and fractuous kids everywhere

The holidays are here soon ... under 8 weeks and all the little darlings will have broken up from school ready to turn your lives inside out! Journeys are always the worst when the whole family are thrown together and confined to a very small space for hours on end; it's no wonder that tensions run high. The only way to avoid major explosions is distraction techniques and constant changing entertainment so no one has time to think how bored they are and start causing trouble. If the children are little separate the journey up into small 20 minute segments:

• 20 minutes of singing along to some music,

• 20 minutes of playing a game out of the window

• 20 minutes talking about where you are going and what you are going to do

• A small toilet break and leg stretching then ...

• back in the car and maybe bring out a goody bag with some activities in for them to play with.

Stories are always good to keep them quiet for a while and when my children were small we spent a 3 hour journey to Wales without a peep out of them, listening to Harry Potter the whole way !

Every family will have different likes and dislikes but how often have you heard grandparents say that your little monsters have been as good as gold. It happens all the time and it happens because the children are getting 100% attention, and most of the time, if this is the case, they are putty in your hands!!. OK ... This may be very dull if you want to listen to your radio programme or have an adult conversation with your partner, but which is worse; a happy journey that is very child biased or a fractuous journey where you try and be an adult and not only fail but end up feeling exhausted and on the verge of tears ?

I know which I would rather have but if all else fails buy a portable DVD player and sit them in front of the box for the entire time!!!