Yesterday six of us plus the dog crammed into the car for a spontaneous five and a half hour road trip to North Wales, as you do. We decided at 11am that a trip to see Swallow Falls in Conwy would be fun and I swallowed my reservations that we were leaving our departure a little late in the day. So at 12.30 we set off, expecting to arrive around teatime. It was a lovely, if long and windy, drive; at 10.20pm we finally pulled up at our hotel, having called twice to delay our arrival. I’m now of the opinion that satnav (regardless of brand or version) works in some time warp which stretches the journey time to double the original prediction. And I’ve realised what many other parents have known for years - that electronic devices are an absolute lifesaver. All was quiet in the car for the first seven hours (even during the toilet stops) while the children watched movies and played games. Things only got difficult when I decided they needed a screen break and should interact with us and each other. Within 5 minutes there were arguments over elbow space and who took their shoes off. Calm was finally restored when the Welsh border loomed and the conversation shifted to who had the passports (OMG, we forgot to bring them!) and our top 5 essential words in Welsh; pobty-ping (sounds like poppety ping and is the word for microwave) is up at number 1.

Anyway, after our long drive my husband and I went to the bar for a nightcap while the kids put themselves to bed. Basking in the novelty of not having to chaperone them, I didn’t question their self sufficiency and naively thought the lack of fuss was due to tiredness. I now suspect they had obtained the WiFi password and snuck devices to their room. Although they were all up bright and early this morning, since breakfast it’s been a mixed day; lots of lovely sightseeing interspersed with teen and pre-teen emotion and a fierce resistance to walking anywhere. Regardless, in addition to the multiple food stops we managed to cram in a walk down to Swallow Falls (25 years after our first and only previous attempt failed), a drive across to Anglesey so we can say we’ve been, and a drive-by photo shoot of Snowdon before tackling the long drive back home. Unfortunately old habits die hard and after a couple of hours in the car I suggested the kids switch off their devices. I’m pleased to say the children managed a good 30 minutes of eye-spy before the bickering started. Eldest son shoved, middle daughter prodded and eldest daughter grumbled while the little one hid in the boot with the dog. I closed my eyes and fell asleep, after which I suspect the children all plugged themselves back in! Thankfully the drive back was a mere 6 hours and now they’re all safely tucked up in bed. It was a lovely two days and we’ll do it again when the weather improves but I think next time I’ll pre-load movies for them and hand out lolly pops before we set off!