Must-have accessories for stress-free family journeys
Life with kids is pretty hectic, so anything that can make spending time on the road with your family more comfortable needs to be welcomed with open arms. Taking a long car journey with children is never dull, always takes a lot of organisation, and can often result in a logistical nightmare.
Between the constant arguing in the back seat and the constant cries of ‘are we there yet?’ a day out on the road as a family can get rather stressful. Luckily, with the aid of some handy accessories, your trip can run a whole lot more smoothly.
Sun shades
The sun being in their eyes is a common complaint made by kids on car journeys and can leave them understandably feeling pretty irritable. To protect your kids from the harsh glare of the sun on your trip, ensure that you have sun shades to make the journey much more comfortable for them.
A few family vehicles come with rear sun shades as standard, but if yours doesn’t, then buying some is a good move. There are many different options out there when purchasing sun shades, some suction onto your window, others are operated like a roller blind, while others fit over the top part of the car door, completely covering the window, and allowing it to open.
Using car window sun shades should also help to stop the car seats getting too hot on a sunny day.
Storage solutions
If there’s one thing you can say for sure about life with kids, it’s that you can’t travel light; kids come with a lot of stuff! On a long car journey, you may need to call in some extra storage solutions to fit everything you need into the car. Roof Racks DIY offer a range of solutions to help free up space inside your vehicle.
Aside from roof boxes and roof racks, there are also options for keeping everything in order inside the car, such as car seat organisers. Car seat organisers fit onto the back of the front seats. These handy organisers have pockets to help keep all the kids stuff safely in one place and some feature trays so that your kids can colour or play on the go.
Rear mirror
A panoramic rear view mirror is a useful car accessory for anyone with kids, particularly younger ones. Again, this is a feature that comes as standard on a few family cars, and is an excellent idea, offering extra reassurance for parents sat in the front.
Usually, the mirror is positioned above your regular rear view mirror and thanks to it being panoramic, it gives a perfect view of the kids in the back seat. Obviously, this is not something that you want to keep looking at if you are driving as it could be a dangerous distraction, but it is useful for your front passenger to be able to see what is happening in the back without needing to crane their neck around every five minutes.
** This is a collaborative post
