Since all of our family is out of town and pretty much spread out across 3 states, we do a lot of road tripping. Most of the time these are little 2-4 hour jogs to visit people for a couple of nights. I didn't use to blink at a 4 hour drive. I went to college 10 hours away from home and frequently made that drive all by my lonesome, and often in the snow. But one you have kids, that totally changes. Katy has never been a car sleeper. She didn't even sleep on the way home from the hospital, God love her. She wants to move, move, and move some more, and the car is just way too constrictive and boring. We've had ups and downs in the car trip scenario, and right now we're in a Down period. Today we drove 3 hours round trip to see Brian's brother and his family, and I was getting really frustrated. This is how our trips go these days:
*About 2 minutes into the trip, the vocal demands begin at top volume. Usually the first one is "guk! guk!" (book). I reach into the bag and hand back a book.
*She flips through the pages for another 2 minutes, then I hear "(thunk) guk! guk!" as the first book is tossed overboard, beyond my reach, and another book is requested. I repeat this process until I am out of books. Same goes for toys.
*The requests eventually change to "doddle! doddle!" (bottle, which is really a cup of milk). I hand back a cup of milk, she sips on it for a few minutes, and then...thunk.
*Once I am out of things to hand to her, the whining starts. I try to reason with her, and usually eventually unbuckle myself to crawl back and pick up all the things she has thrown and start the process over.
I know I could sit in the back with her, and I do for longer trips, which helps some. But once we have another car seat back there it won't be an option, and I would really love to be able to sit up front like an adult and have a conversation with Brian. But maybe that's just not possible with a toddler. Another thing that I've considered is the car DVD player. I know they're pricey and seem excessive, but I'm just wondering if that would make these trips a little less stressful. Anyone else have one? Suggestions?
5 comments:
We don't have one, but we were just discussing this today, actually, as we talked about the possibility of going on "vacation" (well, a trip, since a toddler is involved and it can't really be called a vacation, right?) this summer to the beach. My brother and his wife have one for their three (and they vowed they would never get one). It works well for them and helps. They made several trips back and forth from North Carolina to Ohio last year when they were living down there for a year. I think we might borrow theirs and see how she does on a shorter trip sometime. Maybe you could borrow one and see if it's worth the investment?
I don't have one in my car and I have the same experience as you. Craig has one in his car and Jack LOVES it. We have Sesame Street special edition with lots of songs and he's enthralled with it. He doesn't make a PEEP and will actually doze off too.
I would say buy one, especially if you are planning on lots of trips.
Lucky me, I guess, we have a good car rider. We travel about an hour to an hour and a half (one way) to visit our parents/siblings all the time. Zachariah is usually content to look out the windows or chat with us. Or if it's late or during a naptime, he'll sleep. He's always been a good sleeper in the car.
I'm not a lot of help with the DVD player either, but I have a suggetion. Zachariah isn't into TV, so a DVD player really would be silly for us. BUT, I've heard a lot of people say it's nice to have. I would suggest instead of buying one that you install in the car (more expensive) that you look into a small portable one that you could use in the car (much cheaper). Maybe something like that would be good for you. (Plus I'm thinking you might be able to get one on sale with the Christmas holiday specials.)
http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Audiovox%20D1830%20DVD%20Player:1991248015;_ylt=AnKMInODnSxPVEepqMGFf4gAwIwC;_ylu=X3oDMTBuMWphbzBiBF9zAzU3NjkwMzU0BGx0AzQEc2VjA3Ny?clink=dmss//ctx=sc:cdvd_player,c:cdvd_player,mid:59,pid:1991248015,pdid:59,pos:8
the vcr in our van is priceless. the kids don't watch it all the time, but it is nice when we need some peace and quiet. sometimes it will even lull them to sleep!
Our van has a DVD player. I vowed our son wouldn't use it until he was older.... but our 6 hour trips home quickly changed that. He loves to watch Einstein or Singning Time DVD's, and it's like a treat for him. He doesn't expect it every time we're in the van, we only use it on long trips. We would highly reccomend it.
Allecia
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