Car Dilemmas

[MomFromCanada]

Hi,
My dd is a little over 2 yo and she sometimes will scream in the car (she screams at home too) but will also do it in the car. The thing is, as many others probably will attest to (if they have experience with this), that it is very loud. Now, we try talking to her so she feels 'included' but it doesn't always work. We give her lots of little toys to play with in the back seat too and sometimes one of us will sit with her. It's just when we're traveling together and she's in the back seat she will do it and it's annoying! My dh thinks that doing the time out thing when we get home will work and I think a small little 'swat' on the leg will work so neither of us agree on what we should do about it! Any helpful suggestions from anyone on how we can deal with this and have more peaceful car rides?
Thanks.

[breezykc2]

When my 3 year old DS starts that...I start singing with him....gets his volume channeled to something less shrill usually and then he gets it out of his system for awhile and he's happy if I turn on music to listen to afterwards.....or we play red car...you call out any red car you see or any other color you choose! It does get better!
Now that he's older, we tell him that mommy and daddy need a couple of minutes of quiet time to talk and to drive safely...if he's good, we tell him he can listen to his CARS CD! Usually works!

[savedbygrace]

I can understand and relate! When dd was younger 1-2 she would do the same thing. And now if she ever tries to do it, we pull the car over and swat her bottom. But when she was younger, I would bring her Dora cd's or Backyardigans cd. She would sing along with them and it helped for a short while. Then we went on a long trip and bought a tv. Works like magic!! I burn cartoons that she likes from tv onto a dvd. That way she isn't watching one long movie. Sometimes its a sing a long songs or things like that.

Now some may not agree with that, but it worked for me. :D

[Blessed 2 B Zoey]

I think all the suggestions that you have had so far are really good, you have to distract her from making her noise. One thing that I have heard that works is playing eye spy, you can have a laminated sheet with different picture on and then she has to look out of the window and see if she can spot them. If it is animals that she is spotting get her to make the sound of the animal that she sees.

But I always agree with having childrens music on in the car and if it something that you sing along.

[lvrofmusik]

We also have a dvd/vcr combo for the van. I have to say it is the best investment we ever made. We live far away from family, so we make a lot of long trips, especially here lately, it is awesome. My kids are going to be 5 and 6 soon, plus my 8 month old but she doesn't watch tv yet. You can buy veggie tales movies if you don't want to show your kids regular cartoons. I think it's great. It gives my husband and I some peace and quiet too. Just an idea!! Songs work great for doing family things as well.

[Rach]

all of our kids went through a phase like that. We just ignored it. Sometimes the louder they would get, the louder I would turn up my music.
It lasted only a few months for us.

[Kensbev]

That's actually something I've been working on with Audrey. My response is to calmly tell her to use her quiet voice, or she will have to pay consequences. I keep my tone normal and even, but very firm. We have a DVD player in the car, which she loves, so if she continues to scream after I tell her to calm down, the next time, I tell her that she'll lose the video if she keeps it up. The third time, I reach back and push the video screen up. She's only screamed three times on one occasion since I started this. :lol: Apparently, she didn't much care for losing her video!

[Christy+2]

My DS does this sometimes and first I will try offering him a toy or book and will give him a warning (or 2 :wink: ), but if that doesn't do the trick I tell him I'm going to pop his leg if he doesn't stop. That usally works, of course if it doesn't then I do pop his leg.
To avoid the whole think we play mailbox or stop sign -- searching for mailboxes or stop signs to cheer about! :D