Your kids are rambunctious, and you can’t imagine life without them. Your house is a happy mixture of yelling, music, laughing, barking, loud video games, etc. All of these life noises are wonderful, IF you have the space to get away from it if you want to. A locked bathroom door, a flower garden in the back yard, even a trip to the basement with a load of dirty clothes – anything that provides you with a few moments of peace. Unfortunately, when you’re in the closed area of your car, there has to be a way to adjust the noise level. Here are a few tips picked up from an online traffic school:
- Distracted driving is responsible for 80% of all car crashes. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has discovered that kids are 4 times more distracting to drivers than adult passengers are, and babies are 8 times more distracting! Many parents referee arguments, play kid CDs way too loud, hand out bottles, and root around for favorite dropped toys while driving. You can’t practice defensive driving when you’re in the midst of distracted driving!
- Don’t pass out food or drinks to the kids while driving. If your baby needs a bottle, or if you were running late and the kids didn’t finish their breakfast, here’s a tip. Pull over to the side of the road, at a rest stop, cell phone stop, or a convenient parking space. Hand out snacks and give the baby her bottle while you are safely parked. Clean up and then return to your driving. If this process makes the kids 5 or 10 minutes late for school, the school will just have to deal with it. And you’ll have to adjust your schedule and get everybody moving 15 minutes earlier each day to accommodate for the rushed breakfasts.
- Turn your cellphone off and keep it in your purse or briefcase. That just adds to the problem.
- Buy a “conversation mirror”. This is a device which, when installed on the ceiling, gives the driver a view of the backseat so you’ll know exactly who was hitting who.
- Bribery isn’t always a bad thing, but it must be done before the car is moving. Promise a special treat for the child that is the quietest, or consistently uses their indoor voice in the car. Conversely, say you’re going to a birthday party or somewhere else that the kids really want to go to. At the first yell, scream, or pinch, pull the car over and stop. After the first time you do this, you won’t even have to say anything. Just sit there until the inappropriate behavior is modified. It usually doesn’t take long.
- Say it’s Saturday, and you need to be somewhere at 2 p.m. Leave the house an hour earlier than you need to, and stop at a park on the way. Encourage the kids to run around, hang from the monkey bars, etc. This is a great way to tire them out and make the drive a much quieter one and you will not be distracted driving.
- Alter the breakfasts your kids are having at home if they contain a lot of sugar. Scrambled eggs and a piece of multigrain bread are so much healthier than some sugary cereal and chocolate milk, and you’ll notice the noise level has significantly diminished in the car after the children have had a healthier meal.
Let the kids play with a preprogrammed tablet like the Nook. An iPod touch or LeapPad is good too. Only play Pokemon Go with them when you’re outside the car!
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