Vauxhall have done a bit of research into parents and car trips with kids over the festive period. Apparently three quarters of parents say they find these long car journeys stressful, with the majority (80%) saying they find it hard to keep their little ones amused. To deal with this stress, half of parents time long journeys to coincide with bedtime and over half (56%) put their children in their pyjamas before setting off, hoping they will sleep straight through.
This certainly resonates with me, whenever we go for dinner round my parents, we always take the kids PJs with us and we’re normally rewarded with two thirds of them falling asleep in the car on the way home- yes, the boy never sleeps in the car now. Ever.
Vauxhall Motors have teamed up with DJ and presenter Edith Bowman, and the rather brilliant Nosy Crow books to bring what they’ve Christened Backseat Bedtime to their in-car system OnStar. Vauxhall OnStar is a personal on-board assistant available across Vauxhall’s range. It offers Wi-Fi capability for up to seven devices, vehicle diagnostics to your phone, stolen vehicle assistance, automatic crash response and more.
Vauxhall have chosen three excellent Nosy Crow books written by Tracey Corderoy too:
- Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam,
- Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar; and
- Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble.
We’re big fans of Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam, the cake making doggies, in our house (they might just be reformed burglars but I’m not going to give anything else away). This sort of thing in the car would work wonders for our three!