32 – AUTONEWS - AA CLUB OF KENYA MAGAZINE
GUEST WRITER - IRENE BARU
A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE
Kids onboard or overboard ?
Children can be a nightmare to travel with . I spent the better part of my Eid weekend in the backseat of a car with two children , a three-year old and a six-year old . My nieces had decided it was time to bond with Auntie Kijo ( my family seems to think that Kijo is a cooler than Njoki ) so they were going to ride with me and my sister for the whole weekend . I must say I am not the cool aunt . My sister is pretty much the cool , cooler and coolest aunt so when they insisted on sitting with me , I was quite baffled . And secretly happy they had finally noticed I was their aunt , not some stranger who keeps visiting their grandfather ’ s house and calls their grandmother ‘ mom ’.
Basically , this is my guide to traveling with children while maintaining the “ cool ” label .
Safety First
The biggest problem when traveling with children that age though is keeping them in check . The three-year-old will not , I repeat NOT accept to be put in anything that resembles a car seat and the six-year-old has absolutely refused to be bound by the seatbelt . I mean , her forefathers did not fight the white man for her to be strapped in her seat for six hours . Therefore , amid much fighting and screaming , and name-calling ( where they learned some words , I don ’ t know ), we finally managed to strap everyone in and explain that it is absolutely necessary to wear your seatbelt when in a car . It is a task that requires patience , therefore , consider yourself warned .
Have enough Data on your phone to access song lyrics .
I spent around an hour singing along to everything that played on the radio . I didn ’ t have to but when a six-yearold and a three-year-old can sing every line in ‘ All about that Bass ’ by Meghan Trainor , you have to up your game lest they let the whole clan know that I have no idea what is said in Bazokizo by Collo and Bruce Newtons except Bazokizo . Thank God for Musicmatch and A-Z lyrics , I sang along to every single song and I am now proud to announce I was promoted to cool Auntie Kijo .
Fluids and potty stops “ I need to pee ” has to be among the most common statement children make while on trips . Well , some may say ‘ want to susu ’ or mumble something with ‘ toilet ’ in it but the moment you hear it , you have to stop and look for a place they can go because you don ’ t need your seats soaked hours before you get to where you are going . Always make sure your children have gone to the bathroom before getting into the car , make sure they do not drink the entire water supply for the journey in thirty minutes which for me was the hardest thing after seatbelts because they kept saying “ water ” and “ soda ” and there is absolutely no way you can say no and remain cool so you have to make a choice . Also be willing to make a few stops so that they don ’ t have to suffer looking for bathrooms with full bladders .
Food is a basic need Carry enough snacks for them . They will most likely want to nibble on something on the way . Do not , by any means overfeed them because should motion sickness kick in , you will be left with a load of vomit to clean .
Put your medical emergency kit close by . Children will always be children . They could hurt themselves and you would need a band-aid to put on the scratch or develop a headache and the panadol Junior becomes an absolute necessity . Whatever you do , please make sure you are well prepared to deal with minor medical emergencies .
What happens when they get bored ?
I was in the middle of singing Waka Waka by Shakira ( I didn ’ t know they still played this song , years after the World Cup left South Africa ) when the six-year-old ordered us to turn off the radio because it was boring . You should have seen my face . The horror ! I was here thinking that they were having the time of their lives singing and they were bored ? Bored ! I was insulted . My sister laughed and continued to look ahead like nothing had been said and it was left to me to figure out what children like to do when they are bored .
I hope you are not taking notes because when a child
decides they are bored in a car , there is nothing you can do to intrigue them except hand over your phones to them if they do not already own one .
You must also have really cool games on your phone . Now , mine only has scrabble which they got tired of because they could not make words with Q and Z and they wouldn ’ t let me help , 4 pics one word which I stopped playing at level 998 because I got stuck and there ’ s no way they can get past that level , and ipuke which I will not explain .
Further , you must have answers to every question and God help you if the question is “ why do you have a password to your gallery ?”
You will also need to have a variety of cool apps on your phone , like a camera with a thousand filters and the coloring app , failure to which you will have to download because they know you can get everything on Google play .
Your jokes and stories must rival Spongebob Squarepants because if they are not laughing , they are bored and you have failed miserably in the cool aunt test .
That is my guide to traveling with children . I think I should invest more in children magazines and books to read while travelling lest they grow up thinking they will study chemistry on their phones once they get to high school .
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