Car Kits

I was at the park yesterday, and was discussing the “emergency kit” I keep in the back of my car. It has personally saved me countless times, and has saved other moms I know while our kids play together.

It’s a medium-sized plastic bin with a lid.

Inside is a random collection of items that make life with little kids much easier to handle. Here’s a list of the items I keep in mine:

• Cereal bars
• Applesauce cups
• 2 packs of peanut butter crackers
• Comb
• Extra ponytail holders
• Socks for each family member
• A bathing suit for each kid
• One diaper
• A shirt, pair of pants/shorts, and underwear for each kid
• Sunscreen
• Small First Aid kit (I have an additional First Aid kit elsewhere in the car)
• Sanitizing wipes

I have a note on my calendar every six months to remind me to rotate new items into the emergency kit. I stash fresh snacks, and change the clothes to suit the upcoming season.

This kit has saved me when I am stranded for an unexpected wait without snacks. It has provided backup clothes when a child (mine or a friend’s) has a potty accident or maybe just plays on a wet slide. It has saved me from having to buy another pair of socks when we go to a play area or bounce house that requires socks. Stock yours with whatever you deem crucial in the pseudo-emergencies of your life!

While we’re on the subject of sanity-saving tips, there are a few other items I keep in the car to make my job a little easier. Besides the prerequisite diaper wipes, tissues, and Goldfish snacks stashed in the car’s console, I have a wonderful restaurant kit in the trunk. Some people call them Busy Bags, which is a better name because they work in places other than restaurants too. Mine is stocked with crayons, a coloring book, stickers, blank paper, a set of Aquadoodle pages with the “magic” water coloring pens, a Thomas the Train take-along play set, dry erase board and markers, and various tiny toys (a Hot Wheels car, a Star Wars figure, and a toy airplane).

I used a zippered plastic bag (the type you buy a comforter or sheets in) and added a dog tag to the zipper with my son’s name and phone number on it. If it gets left behind in a restaurant or doctor’s office, it can be returned to us.

I’ve been visiting a few doctors lately with regular lupus checkups, and I make sure to grab the crayons out of this bag in my trunk. Jackson and I use the crayons to draw all over the paper that covers the exam table, and it makes the wait a little easier. Then when the doctor walks into the room, I break out the big guns and give him the MOST appealing toy I’ve been saving for last: my iPhone!!! It has brought me sanity and allowed me to focus on the doctor’s presence.