1. Become a millionaire.
2. Hire a private jet to take you to your destination.
3. If said jet is not available, hire someone else to drive your kids to your destination in a separate car.
4. If that fails, rent a limo so you could put up the soundproof glass separator.

1. Stop every couple of hours and literally let your kids run around. Simon Says is a great game for this: "Simon says run around the tree 3 times." Tossing a ball or throwing a Frisbee is great too (as long as they don't throw anything off of a cliff) as are invented random games like making shadows hop up and down.
2. We started our trip listening to our own music and then as our children's restlessness grew we moved up (down?) to kids music, followed by stories on CD. Each change was dictated by our attempt to balance keeping the kids calm against avoiding ripping our own hair out when listening to this stuff. We thought bringing out the DVD player was the last resort, but even a DVD loses it's novelty after a while ago and then you're just SOL.
3. If you're SOL and you're not driving, put in a pair of ear plugs (or use an iPod.) No, I'm not kidding. OS saw me put in the ear plugs, thought I couldn't hear his temper tantrum (I could) and then stopped and fell asleep. I highly recommend the bright orange Mac's Earplugs because they're easy for your child to see when they're in your ears (so they're really OS's that I carry around in the diaper bag for his ear tubes, but they did the trick!)

Labels: Travel