Laptop as DVD player in car

I just don't get it! There is more to life than damn DVD players! You're on holidays, for heavens sake. Leave all that crap home (where they probably get too much of it anyway)! Are parents these days just too lazy or too selfish to bother to entertain their kids or involve them in discovering what's beyond that stupid screen? $349 bucks to shut the kids in a closet, so to speak! Bah, and not healthy! And why the hell would they want to be watching that garbage on interesting and badly corrugated dirt roads? Come on, get a life and enjoy your kids while you can! I know I will cop some chit from this, but who cares. Some things just leave me wondering too...

JJ,

I understand where you are coming from. My wife and I debated fitting a system to our car but ultimately decided against it, mainly for the reasons you outline.

But, you make the assumption that people are on holidays any time they jump in their car and this is obviously not so. On a seven hour drive up the freeway at night to visit the in laws for a weekend, these things would be invaluable. Unless a freeway at night offers the sort of interest in 'discovering what's beyond that stupid screen'.

I assume that you are a parent, but unfortunately children don't always oblige us by behaving in a way that promotes the idyllic, happy little family unit. They can be irrational beasts and if you have always managed to have happy engaged children for every minute they sit in the car, then I would like to know your secret.

The secret, of course, is in limiting the use of DVDs, etc to when they are really needed and by keeping your children interested and engaged in the world around them when not watching DVDs. Not related to travel in the car, but without the 30 minutes of peace offered by a Wiggles video, most young parents would never have sex again.

A question of balance and parental control I guess.

Hi Matt,
DVDs were not heard of when our kids were young (from ages 2, 4 & 5 on)! and distance (from the Centre) was a major factor for annual summer time visits to grannies... no air-con in vehicles then either! There's no secret & I don't claim that our lot were angels, but guess they just loved to travel Always had a 'lucky dip' bag of tricks, with new games, puzzles etc. up the sleeve, for when they got squabbly or a bit restless, and each had their 'box' of favourite books, cards & odd toys. When we all tired of the usual 'I Spy' etc. we made up our own games involving the countryside, traffic, #plates & stuff... a favourite being "guess the colour of the next car to come along"!
OK, I am with you re DVDs & fair enough on today's freeway travel, or short distant runs where the driver can do without noisy distracting games. And our daughter & son-i-l are no exception here! They're as DVD reliant as the next guy... preferring to run around in their F250 (with inbuilt DVDs) rather than use the Territory in town!
But my gripe is about bush trips & travel in general, not just getting from A to B on boring city freeways!
However, I guess it all boils down to how the other half live! If we all thought the same, done the same and agreed to everything; how boring! And we would have no forum to entertain us! As for sex! Bah Humbug! Been there done that, over the hills & far away...

JJ,
Let's not get bogged down in "the good ol' days". Yes we travel with a DVD player and with the air con on. Yes our kids keep logs of our daily travels, calculate distances, work out fuel consumptions, take photos, write poems and read books etc etc. There are just some times when I like to kick back and enjoy the drive without feeling I'm the in car entertainment. They enjoy the distraction from an 8 hour drive and we all arrive with our humour in tact. When we get back home, everyone feels that they have had a holiday. We love our dvd player.