DVD in car

Robak,

My kids never annoyed me with “Are we here yet” – that problem never exists in our car. Despite we get from Melbourne to Gold Coast (and eventually back) by car in one day as many as 5 times. Chatting, verbal games, books etc keep us busy, And as you said – TV/DVD is at home each day and every day – why not get rest from it? And when my younger one became gets too bored I gave him map and ask to navigate to figure out when we about to arrive. He became very proficient in navigation at 12 years of age - better then SWMBO, in fact much better. As least never mix left and right. LOL.

Serg

you go from melb to gold coast in one day driving ???? --- Lucky you don't have to keep a log book to show to RTA inspectors ....


Boc

5 times, one as solo driver. And will do it again if needed. Start at 2am and depending on luck arriving at 9 or 10 pm. No overspeeding.

Serg

Steve,

Our older one had very bad motion sickness – could not sit in car for more then an hour at age of 9. Thankfully this usually goes away with age. We been really struggling until someone suggest “antimotion” pills – you can get one from any pharmacy without prescription. Helps us enormously. And a year or two later became totally redundant. Also what I find out it is heaps better look straight ahead instead of to side. So put her in the middle of rear seat or if big enough on first seat.

Serg

Thanks Serg,

But I think she's mostly grown out of it, and having the dvd stopped her looking out the window and I think that helped.

We just use it on the black top, we turn it off when in interesting places or 4wding. They also have other stuff they take with them to keep themselves occupied.

Over three days of travelling we manage to have a healthy balance of quiet time (DVD's), family discussions (sometimes noisy ones), and our fair share of eye spy.

What ever works for each family is fine by me, ours is happy having a DVD player as a 'part' of our travelling experience.

Steve

G'day Bill,

Annette and I followed that philosophy for the past 12 years or so and by the end of any trip longer than about 2 hours, my voice was hoarse from having to yell at the boys all the time. They simply could not amuse themselves with the myriad of gear that we carried. All manner of books, games, I-spy, etc etc. The only thing I never actually tried (which I sort of wish I had...and still could I guess), is those talking books.

Anyway, I bit the bullet several months ago and installed a $300- roof-mounted dvd player. I bought some reasonably cheap dvds off ebay and from Woolies. The boys each have a pair of infra-red headphones which hang up behind them when not in use.

It really does keep them quiet.

I agree it would be great if they could absorb all the sights around them as we scoot along at 100k/h along the h'way. The reality is that kids have a very short span of attention and there are only so many interesting looking salt bushes or games of I spy that you can play during the course of the day. Spotting roos and emus is old-hat for kids accustomed to driving in the bush too. When we stop they are eager to explore etc, but the travelling side of it is just plain brain-numbingly boring.

One game I have devised but have yet to try them on, involved a bit of work on the computer...... I typed up 10 pages of numbers (in order), from 001 to 100.....and 101 to 200....and 201 to 300 etc etc.

I plan to give each boy a sheet with his 100 numbers on it (different numbered sheet for each one) and let them mark off a number when they see it on a car/truck's number plate, distance marker etc. I know they'll probably cheat, but it'll be Annette's job to try and keep them honest. Just to make it interesting, I will tell them that the person who is the pre-selected order of completion, will get a chocolate etc..... (It may be the 2nd person to get their sheet filled in; but they won't know until they've all finished; they can draw straws to determine whether it's 1st, 2nd or 3rd place-getter who gets the choc).

Roachie

My kids watch DVDs on every long trip on the black top and I don't blame them. You can only play I Spy for so long and reading in the car makes them feel a bit crook. I get a great deal of pleasure out of driving but being a passenger in a car to me is one of the most boring things in the world, endless hours of watching what isoften boring countryside outside roll by.
I'll wager those that don't like DVDs in cars don't dribve for hours without the radio/UHF etc on to amuse them. As much as I'd like to think I'm rivetting company my kids don't want to talk to me for hours on end above the noise of the diesel engine/wind noise/swearing truckers ;) that fills the cab.

Yeah, perhaps you guys have more current experience with youngsters than I.

I will concede that DVD's could be an asset while traveling, but surely not after arriving at your destination.

Bill.

Good thought Sandman, was about to ask how long since you travelled with a car full of young kids?
I know you dont haahah.
Our kids are grown up and we are now in the position of taking up to 3 grandkids with us on a regular basis.
Wish they were around 25 years ago.
Last year we took 3 grandkids to ceduna while we were babysitting for a week, and at the last minute we bought a dvd.
BEST thing we could have done.
6 & 3 year old's and 10 month old travelled excellent, feed them, change them and put on a dvd and we had to keep checking to see if they were still there LOL
Yes we do take it camping as sometimes when weather is less than kind or after dark/tea before bed we will put a dvd on to wind them down ready for bed. They get heaps out of there camping and exploring so the two can mix well, not to mention the peace for a couple of old farts !!! LOL

Cheers Pesty

Know the feeling, on a recent trip to Adelaide we left the DVD's at home and suffered all the way there.

Before leaving Adelaide we had loaded all our photos onto a disk and armed with a pen and paper our 12 year old could view and chose the photos he liked and because it was fresh in his mind he wrote a summary on each photo. He later used this in a school project.

We now tend to use it as an educational aid.

After visiting a place of interest and travelling to the next place our son is incharge of viewing and summarising all our photos using the car DVD player.