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This is what all my friends say. They are like, "Just wait! When you have kids, you'll get those, too!" (or an ipad or whatever to distract them, keep them quiet, shut them up)
B.S.
These are probably the same people who toss their dogs outside when they want attention or give them a bone to chew instead of interact with them or give them something more worthwhile to do.
I don't believe in saying now what I will and won't do with my kids that I don't have yet (though we're trying now)...I don't believe in that perfect mom garbage, but I do know that I'm NOT doing this.
My dad knew he had us captive when he had us in the car, and I have so many great memories...
Let us know how it works out. You don't know irritation until you have a three- and a five-year-old asking, "how much longer? How much longer? How much longer? How much longer? How much longer?" every 32 seconds, alternated with "Moooooooommmmm, he's looking at me! Mooooooommmmm, she's sticking her tongue out! Mooooooommmmm, he's picking his nose! Moooooom, she has her shoes off!" for 12 hours straight. Let me guess, though, your kids won't act like that, right? My hypothetical kids wouldn't, either. Unfortunately, those well-behaved creatures never clued in my real kids!
Just to interject because i was one of the ones who made the ADD comments...I was speaking of shorter trips along with just going to the store etc....
You all who drive these 18 hours + trips are nuckin futs!!! With toddlers???!!!! I bow to you. My max in a car is 5 hours. Anything more and I am jumping off the next bridge.
Right now is a wonderful time of yr w/ toddlers in the car...I do not tire of hearing how excited they get seeing Christmas decorations & lights when we run errands, go to school, ets.
We have a out of state wedding we must attend this summer in TX...it will be a 26hr car ride (prior to rest stops) w/ a 5, 3 & 1yr old. I actually think driving will be far easier than flying. I've done this drive before so the night before, we will be at the library picking out DVDs
When i was a kid/teen handheld videos games came out and i was not allowed to bring them in the car. I was also limited on tv time,computer time,and video game time as well. They are simply getting the same rules i got growing up. And as for how many use them...i would say at least 80 percent of my female mom friends have them and majority of them pop them on any trip they go on. My fav was least week when i went on a trip with my friend Karen and her 4 kids....and between her checking her phone, hers kids texting, and the little ones watching a dvd i think maybe 3 lines of conversation got uttered. While i don't generally see a problem with occasional usage of them i won't use them because i feel if i could entertain myself on long trips so can my kids. At least they don't have my father who used to try to sing the entire trip *pure torture* .
I've learned many a thing from tv and movies. They've "broadened my horizons" and I see nothing wrong with them - in moderation. I also have no issue with my kids listening to music on mp3's. Why would I???
I think an airplane trip is very different than a car trip. On an airplane you can't make a lot noise, and there's usually nothing (other than clouds) to look at. You often can't even talk to your neighbor very easily, as it's often fairly loud, let alone have a full-family conversation. The pilots on the airplane are also sequestered away in the cockpit, and don't have the movie playing right behind their head. I think it's really like comparing apples to oranges. Both are forms of transportation, but other than that they have very little in common.
I don't have a problem with anyone who does choose to buy a car with a DVD player in the backseat, although I personally wouldn't do it (and yeah, I have gone long distances -- as in four days of driving (and shorter) -- with a little kid); I personally think it's a huge waste of money. But to each his own, and if someone else has the money and thinks it's important than go right ahead. It doesn't matter to me. The airplanes, though, fly hundreds of people each and every day; their TV screens will get a lot of use over their lifetime. There's just not much you can DO on an airplane, and as I think someone said earlier, if you start to sing or blast the radio on the airplane you will get nasty looks or asked to be quiet. You also can't stop to run around and blow off steam.
Again, I don't have any problem with those who choose to buy a vehicle with built-in TVs for long trips, but I do think that there are big fundamental differences between use in the car and on the plane.
My kids aren't allowed to make a lot of noise in our car either - too distracting. Highways are BORING to look at for hours on end. Listening to a volume appropriate movie is no different than listening to noise appropriate conversation.
Really? You are going to compare wearing a seatbelt to watching tv?
No-what I am saying is that just because our parents did certain things and we turned out fine it doesn't mean that we should not change what we do with our own kids.
Before I had kids I would have said no.
For day to day trips no.
On the 18 hour non-scenic drive to Disney the borrowed one was an absolute life and sanity saver.
It's all relative.
By the way, when I was little my parents drove coast to coast. That drive wasn't fun. The first couple of pretty hours through California desert was fun. Days of straight roads in corn country were awful, boring and monotonous. 35 years later I still remember the absolute misery of watching the road ahead, begging for just a gas station or motel to make things interesting.
I guess its for the same reason when there were bigger cars ids use to bring comic books and toys to keep them busy. Now days with seatbelts it seem that they need even more things to keep them entertained and in them. Besides kids can distract a driver pretty easily especaily sionce now its recommend they ride in the backseat even with one other person in the vehilces for safety reasons.
Back in 1992 I knew of a guy with a luxury van that had a small TV in the headliner. It was the old CRT style too.
Nowadays for a road trip I think TV's are great to pass time. We have a 2 yr old that gets restless when we travel 1100 miles from Missouri to N. Carolina. A TV helps keep her occupied, she doesn't scream and cry as often, etc.
Heck nowadays they have iPods in cars and CD players....back when I was a kid if you had a cassette deck in the car, you were good. Last road trip I took as a kid CD's were a few years up the road from being in existence. We didn't have iPods then, so it was tapes or listen to the radio stations come and go traveling across the states.
Is this normal? It seems to be fairly commonplace nowadays.
What do you think of this? Do you have your kids watch TV while in the car?
I got to say I think it is completely unnecessary.
We don't have any permanent TV screens in our cars the way some SUVs and minivans do these days, but we do have portable DVD players that we only bring along for the kids when we're going on a long trip.
I do agree that kids don't need to constantly watch TV in the car....but its good for kids who get bored on a 4 hour drive.
Some of you may like to know that I have seen the light.
A couple of days ago we drove through a particularly horrid stretch of the Mojave Desert. For you geography buffs out there this would be the 18 through Lucerne Valley, CA. (Which looks about as much like Lucerne, Switzerland as I look like Lady Gaga. So get that visual out of your mind.) I live in the Sonoran Desert. We have saguaros and Palos Verdes and creosote trees and cacti to look at. Sometimes it is even green.
This was nothing but sand. And more sand. And a few dried-up bushes. And more sand. And lonely looking houses with some, shall I say, "interesting-looking" inhabitants. But wait there's more: There was sand!!! (Granted the whole experience was probably made worse by the fact that we had driven down out of the snowy, green, lovely San Bernardino mountains.) I realised the last time I had been on that highway I was in my parent's Mercury station-wagon. We were probably singing to keep from going stark raving mad.
I'd have given a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to the first person who handed me a DVD player and a couple of movies.
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