Some people have a baby that hates the car seat/car, and to you I offer my deepest sympathies and love. Just know you are racking up celestial patience points. They exist and they are real and you’re earning them.

My child is the opposite. Basically anytime we’re in the car for longer than 5 minutes she will fall asleep. It was awesome as a baby, because hauling the infant car seat into the house was NBD and she could nap seamlessly from car to house. Now that she’s bigger she won’t stay asleep if you try to transfer her from car to crib, and if the day is hotter than 80* my garage is way too warm to let her continue sleeping in the car.

So what to do? I can’t have her taking a 20 minute car nap that ruins her chances at a ~real nap, but sometimes blasting the music, opening all the windows, and shouting at her repeatedly still doesn’t work when she’s really sleepy. What can be done about that? Turns out – a lot!

50 Things To Do In the Car With a Napping Kid

1. Sodalicious run. You saw that coming didn’t you?
2. Grab some drive through food or a snack. McDonald’s Diet Coke and a large fry? There is no better combination. A quick burrito. A smoothie. You’ve got options.
3. If you have time and gas – driving the canyon with your favorite playlist is totally zen.
4. Car wash – if your baby will sleep through it!
5. Find a shady spot to park your car, if you don’t want to cruise.
6. Tweeze your eyebrows. We all know the car mirror is the absolute best lighting for it. I keep tweezers in my center console specifically for this purpose.
7. Check all of your social media
8. Take a couple minutes to just breathe really deeply and fill up your lungs completely. Do you realize how rarely we actually do that?
9. Clean all of the wrappers and garbage out of your car
10. Wipe down the interior of your car with baby wipes (or car cleaning wipes if you have them!)
11. Read scriptures or magazine articles on the LDS Gospel Library app
12. Text a friend you haven’t talked to in a while just to see how they’re doing.
13. Make a throwback playlist of all of your favorite high school jams
14. Discover your own neighborhood. Drive down nearby streets with which you’re unfamiliar and discover nearby parks, stores, restaurants, anything you didn’t know was there.
15. Go on an unfollow spree. You know you’ve followed wayyyyy too many small shops and dumb complainers.
16. Clean out your diaper bag/purse
17. Add pictures to your contacts
18. Clean out your photo stream. I’ve got a million screenshots and identical pictures of Reese that I never take the time to delete.
19. Call and make appointments you’ve been putting off. We all have them.
20. Create some photo albums. Summer 2016. All the pics from your family vacation. Pictures of your baby and puppy.
21. Pray. I know that’s cheesy, but sometimes a quiet car is the perfect place to offer a prayer that isn’t rushed by food or sleep or a crying baby.
22. Download an ebook or audiobook from your local library or Amazon.
23. Catch up on the news. I have a few news apps on my phone and I subscribe to theSkimm.
24. Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while, if your baby will sleep through talking.
25. Update your Amazon wish list
26. Leave reviews for products you love/hate
27. Make a spotify playlist for the next upcoming holiday
28. Create a to do list for the day/week/month that includes all the stuff you need to do for family, house, money, work, church, etc.
29. Browse for inspiration for your next haircut/color
30. Fill up online shopping carts all over the internet
31. Send your husband or S.O. a nice text telling them something you love about them
32. Update your Netflix & Hulu queue with movies and TV you want to watch
33. Drive to a place that brings back happy memories or nostalgia
34. Tense and relax your muscles by group starting from the top of your head to your toes
35. Read about the upcoming stage of life – for example I spent 30 minutes in my car sipping Diet Coke and reading about potty training, despite being nowhere near that in our actual life.
36. Find and follow dog instagram accounts
37. Browse the Classifieds section for things you might be interested in buying (or selling!)
38. Treat yo self to a McDs vanilla cone with the change in your cupholder
39. Take a minute (after eating a vanilla cone) to assess your health. How have you been feeling lately? Sleeping? Energy? Do you feel like anything is wrong? Do you need to make any changes to feel better physically?
40. Watch youtube makeup tutorials
41. Make a seasonal bucket list of things you’d like to do with your family, this season or next
42. Download a free game from the top free apps list and learn to play it
43. French braid your hair
44. Brainstorm names for your future children. I do this a lot.
45. Research a location for your dream vacation, even if you’ll never take it
46. Text your Visiting Teaching girls to see how they are doing
47. Try every single snapchat filter
48. Go over your bank account for the past week or month, checking for unexpected charges, seeing how much you spent on Sodalicious, etc.
49. Turn to Pinterest for outfit inspiration
50. Go back home because you’re bored and that babe needs to wake up!!!