I will go to great lengths to avoid the fights associated with driving with my kids. In my last vehicle I purchased the package that included a DVD player in the back, so the kids would be occupied. Complete with wireless headphones, the DVD player works well, but always having a new DVD on hand isn’t as easy as it sounds.
At 11 and nine my kids — like most others — have an uncanny ability to know just how long a trip is, giving them time to drag out the torture of fights and bickering until the very end. If we leave for a five minute drive to the mall, they will start fighting as soon as we get in the car, making sure we don’t miss a minute of arguements. If we go on a longer drive, they seem to get along, lulling us into a feeling of peacful bliss and then POW! the fights begin.
The latest thing my wife and I gave up are our iPods. Although we know the peacefulness won’t last forever, the last drive we went on was great — we never really heard from them and we didn’t have the constant, “what did you say,” while we were trying to have a conversation without the kids’ involvement.
When we pulled into McDonald’s on the way home, I noticed both kids bopping their heads to the music and staring intently at the iPod screens. When I looked closer, my daughter was playing Solitaire and my son was playing Parachute. What’s even stranger about this is that they both have new GameBoys — couldn’t they listen to music on the iPod and play their GameBoys?
The anwser — which I will never understand — is no. My daughter explained it to me, and while it seemed to make perfect sensse to them, the logic went right over my head. Suffice it to say, they really liked the combination of the iPod music and the games included in the device.
I think it was just another way for them to mess with my mind.
Recent Comments