We bought a new car in June and one thing we looked for was the edition (or whatever) that DID NOT have a television in it. Chris's family lives in southern California and that 6 hour drive (8 hours with potty, food, stretching, running) is rough with a group of little people. The last trip we made we actually did purchase individual DVD players for everyone hoping that it may make it easier and we decided that at the Grapevine we'd let them have them (that's 4 hours from here). Between here and there we read and talked and sang and sat in silence and napped. It's funny because even when we gave them the DVD players they'd pause them themselves and still look out the window quite a bit.
I don't want to get all judge-y about it. I just don't get it. I like to hear the kids' observations about what they see, ask questions, and sometimes just enjoy their own company as they sit in silence. And YES, my kids do fight in the car. But I'm not willing to silence the fighting with television.
This is one example of why I don't think they need television - in the car, that is. Here is William allowing his imagination to run a little wild. (He hit his eye on the footboard of our bed this morning while he and Drew were wrestling around. I told him that if someone at school asks him what happens he should say that he got in a fight with a big purple monster.)
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Oh, at six months the Mommy & Me Sing Along DVD was the only thing that kept Garrett from screaming the entire car ride. It didn't last too long. While pregnant with Carson & looking for a new car, I looked for an edition that DID have a DVD player just in case he was the same way. Now for long drives, it's Leap Frog's Letter Factory. Thankfully, Carson sleeps every time he's in the car.
ReplyDeleteHe's so awesome!
ReplyDeleteI purposely didn't have a DVD installed in our car. We have portables, but those are for long drives and really, they watch a movie or two when we drive for twelve hours, but they aren't glued to them. SURE, there are times when we've had to be in the car that I've wished we had a DVD to pop in but clearly we've all lived through it.
We didn't have a dvd player in our car 'coz we bought it pre-kids...HOWEVER, we're so glad we didn't. We open up the storage space where the DVD player is supposed to be, and we have them "pretend" to watch. They come up with their own shows and tell us all about what they're watching. It's great 'coz they normally watch different shows, and both kids are happy :). Especially with how quickly how they change their minds with what they want to watch, it's the best 'coz they can literally change it in a second w/o us having to do anything :). It's the best "imaginary dvd player" ever, especially during our SoCal trips :).
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