Let’s face it travelling with toddlers on long distance journeys is a bit of a nightmare; will they behave wonderfully or will they for the next two hours continue to scream, shout, kick your chair and ask for every toy that you put in the boot?

Usually, with Addison, it’s the latter of the above. I have lost count of the number of times we’ve gone out for the day and packed a bag full of car toys, only to leave them at home or put them out of her reach which results in me doing some sort of contortion act to retrieve requested items from the bag.

Thankfully, the lovely people at Kiddicare had obviously been told about my journey frustration and came to the rescue with a fantastic device called a Traykit. I, being a bit dim, wasn’t sure what a Traykit was and when the package arrived from Kiddicare, I was surprised at the concept of a backpack that affixes to the rear of a passenger or driver seat and can contain lots of things to keep small people occupied. Really, was a solution as simple as this?

I gave it to Addison before our car journey at the weekend and she was intrigued. I had made a mental note that the contents of the pack were not included and so as not to incur mummy fail points had already put in it new crayons, a colouring book, her favourite comforter, a new juice cup, a story book and her magnetic draw pad. Despite all the contents, the pack remained light and she eagerly took it out of my hands when presented with the backpack.

The colours of the Traykit are really vivid which is good and it instantly reminded Addison of the back pack in one of her favourite pre-school programmes, Dora the Explorer. I told her that this was a magic backpack for the car and that if we put it on mummy’s seat it would mean that she had her own activity station for our journey.

When affixed to the back of the seat and they tray was opened out, it was really sturdy and well constructed; even when Addison was pulling on it there was no chance of it detaching from the back of the seat and I honestly think in three hour car journey I only turned round to fill her juice cup up and show here where I had hidden a special treat in the inner pocket for her to snack on.

It certainly made travelling a lot easier and less stressful than previous journeys and I can see that the Traykit is a really great, portable, compact item for your child to take out and about with them. It encourages independence on their part to get things for themselves as they can store all of their items such paper, pencils, books, toys and carry it around as a lightweight backpack. Then when in the car, plane or train it can be opened out as a play tray and keeps everything in one place with its upright edges.

Hurrah! A gadget that is useful for parents and kids – nice work Kiddicare, it gets a big thumbs up from us over at Mummy Blogger HQ and is now accompanying us on all car journeys!