<human>: Hello parents of Reddit!  I have a question I was hoping you could help me out with.  Let me start by explaining the situation.

I am 25 years old and my girlfriend is 26 years old.  We have been together for about 7 years and have no interest in getting married or having children (well, I would like to have children eventually, but that is for another time).  My girlfriends best friend has a boy who is about 5 years old whose father isn't involved.  Because of this, I find myself doing "dad" things with him.  

Recently I brought up going camping/fishing with my girlfriend while our friend was over and she mentioned that her son has not gone fishing and he would love it.  Of course I offered to bring them and this weekend we will be setting out for an overnight to an upstate river.

This past Saturday, my girlfriend and I purchased our first vehicle together.  A very nice vehicle.  The only reason we could afford said vehicle is due to the fact that my girlfriends parents offered to pay a large chunk of it, having recently sold their company (we're talking 8 figures).  We are both very proud of this new vehicle in all of its shiny, clean glory.

Today while sitting on the couch talking about our new baby (the car), we had a sudden realization that our friends 5 year old son will be riding in the car with us for upwards of 2 to 2 1/2 hours this weekend.  So I guess my question is, how can keep our new car like new?  My suggestion was to say no food or drinks in the car except water, but my girlfriend is convinced that won't fly with a 5 year old.  Is there any way to "kid proof" the car?  Is there any way to do that without offending our friend?  My second suggestion was to throw a painters tarp over the seats back there.  Again, my girlfriend shot that one down saying it would be mean.  How can we convey to her we want him to not make a mess without sounding like jerks?

Thanks, hope to hear back soon!

Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?
<bot>: Taking friend and her 5 year old child in my brand new car on a trip.  Will be in car about 2 1/2 hours.  How can I keep it clean?!