Saturday, Sep 22, 2007 at 14:51
G'day Julie,
My wife and I agree with you totally (in an ideal world). Annette doesn't even know I'm involved in this thread or that I am even half-way contemplating a purchase of this type......if she did, she would not be happy!!!
However, our situation is that we have 3 sons, aged 11, 9 and 6 (all with birthdays coming up in the next few months). We have taken all of them
camping on a regular basis before they were 6 months old.......so they know all about
camping and the bush in general.
One of THE MOST stressful parts of any trip we do is, unfortunately, the driving; thes boys will fight and argue, causing me to lose my temper. I find myself yelling at them, trying to whack one or more on the leg (with my open hand) etc, all as I attempt to drive along in a 5t+ rig..... a recipe for a disaster if ever there was one.
Xmas before last, I lashed out and bought each of them his own PSP plus several games (about $1500- spent). That was okay, until they'd start fighting over who had which game. I don't want to give the impression that these lads are spoilt brats (they probably are, and they get told as much quite often!!!).
In an ideal world, we would be able to pull up every hour or so for 15 minutes and they could expell some energy on some play equipment, or run around and look at things pertaining to "nature" etc. However, in practice this is rarely convenient or conducive to getting from A to B in a reasonable amount of time.
I know that even if I were to get a DVD player, there would be arguments about what movie they watched etc. I could solve that one by making myself (or Annette) the sole decision maker in this regard.
In summary, I reiterate that I agree with your ideals, but believe that our kids are much more "stimulated" than kids were when I was a kid.....or maybe I should say that it takes more sophisticated things to keep them interested. We've done all the "I spy" and "A to Z" games to death over the years.
Cheers
Roachie
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