Going cold turkey: A 540-mile road trip, four kids, no DVDs
In a travel story Sunday, I wrote of a social experiment I conducted using my own four kids as the hapless Guinea Pigs. For a 540-mile, 11-hour excursion in the minivan I unplugged all electronic media. This was road travel as it was experienced by my wife and me in stifling hot station wagons with only AM radio and our own imagination to fend off the boredom.
As I mentioned in the story, the results were good and bad. Good, in that our children did not stage a violent mutiny. Good, in that for the most part the kids genuinely enjoyed old-fashioned road games.
But as they say in parenting, this hurt us a lot more than it hurt them. In truth, the day was also exhausting. Sure, I cringe at the thought of the kids mindlessly watching DVDs as the majesty of the Rocky Mountains roll by unnoticed. But I’ll confess that it’s also nice to be able to plug the kids in, tune them out, and talk to my wife for hundreds of miles.
And that’s the rub of modern parenting, isn’t it? So many devices and technologies give us an electronic babysitter. But for as much as I want to quit them so my kids can know the pleasures of a low-tech childhood, I can’t.
Can you? Anyone out there have ideas for uplugging our kids?
A colleague at work gave me the best idea for an upcoming road trip — books on CD. He said “Little House on the Praire” entertained his two young boys for six hours straight. We’re excited about trying this on our annual trip to Texas. Usually, we focus on music. Everyone gets a chance to pick their CDs, and we take turns listening, one by one. (No Hannah Montana for six hours!) Usually, the person whose turn it is, sings along. It’s fun. But, after several hours, I do have a headache.
For boys, get them in Boy Scouts. No electronics on campouts…of course the tropp needs to be an actively camping one. There are some that aren’t. I second books on podcast…I use them on my commute to work and there’s no reason they wouldn’t work on road trips also.