It's 2010 and We Still Can't Teleport Places. Interesting.
All of our best conversations happen in the car. I hear about all of the daycare gossip. I hear about Alexis' plans for the future. Mostly, though, I hear all about how I'm doing it wrong.
"I don't think we should have rice for dinner."
"It's not a bath night."
"I don't want to clean up my dollhouse stuff."
Yesterday, Alexis spent the entire ride home telling me about how she thinks we need to buy a "TV car." At first I didn't quite know what she was talking about, but when she pointed to the car ceiling and said we should have a TV there, I figured it out. She wants to be one of the cool kids that watches TV everywhere they go because they have a TV that drops from the ceiling of the vehicle.
It ain't happening.
We do have a portable DVD player for her, but it's strictly reserved for long trips. Those are the rules that we are comfortable enforcing, so it sits unused in a closet most of the time.
Alexis knows those are the rules, so she decided to try to bring her negotiation skills to the conversation.
"We need a TV car so Daddy can watch the news when he drives," she told me. I thought it was interesting that she started out with trying to please he who was not there, but it was downright funny that she picked "news" over the never-ending stream of movies he really watches.
"I could watch Tom and Jerry!" she followed up. Apparently, there is some sort of bonus there that I'm not completely comprehending.
"You could watch a Mommy show!" Finally, she thought to kiss up to me.
"What's a 'Mommy show?'" I asked. I really had no idea.
Apparently, neither did Alexis. She couldn't think of a show that I would want to watch for several seconds. Then, she finally blurted out, "Dancing with the Stars!"
"Alexis, I don't like that show," I told her. I figured it was time she heard the truth.
"Yes, you do," she insisted.
I straightened her out, but only after several minutes of back-and-forth.
I might be doing it wrong, but I'd much rather go toe-to-toe with a 4-year old about the merits of having a TV in the car than have her turn into a zombie as she watches a TV in the car.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Reader Comments (27)
Yup, I'm on board with you. We have a portable dvd player that is reserved for long trips as well. The trip needs to be at least three hours for us to pull it out. He was absolutely awestruck when we rode with my sil and her kids and they had tvs in the back of the headrests. He never asked for one though, I think he knows it isn't worth the hassle.
We've already had a few incidents over watching DVDs in the car. Our rules are the same, only for long trips, but E obviously thinks its necessary to test the waters every few weeks or so. If she didn't make me want to pull my hair out when I travel with them by myself in the first place, I would probably nix the whole thing altogether.
Preaching to the choir. If they have too much access to TV, they simply won't do anything else - even if access to other things (books, box games, playgrounds) is just as easy. We don't even have TV connection and my kids sometimes still watch too much TV!
Thank god spring is coming so I can just tell them to go play outside :-)
You and me both. We don't even have a portable DVD for long car trips.
(although I admit that we got the 5 yr old a DS for his birthday so I'm sure that will make an appearance on the next long car ride.)
I would like to add that I'm not anti-TV - he does watch a fair bit of it - I just don't think he needs it every where he goes.
Sometimes I think, "Why oh why couldn't I have been a kid in this day and age with TV cars and portable DVD players?" There were far too many long trips with we 3 kids strapped into the back seat with nothing to do but fight with each other. (Quietly, though, lest Dad have to "pull the car over.")
Then on the other hand, I know the trade-off was that we got to go play outside unsupervised... all day long in the summer, which I now know was my parents attempt to get us kidnapped.
We're one of those families with the drop down from the ceiling. However, like you, it's only used for long trips and luckily, my guy knows this! And c'mon, you totally have to watch DWTS this season........it's the all-stars trainwrecks this season.......c'mon! ha ha ha ha
I'm with you on the TV car. We use the dvd player when we go on the long trips, but otherwise, forget it. I know someone whose kids watch their "car tv" every single time they are in the car - it's absurd! They also take the portable dvd player into every restaurant they go to. I think it;s less about the kids and more about them not having to deal with them while they eat (or, actually, drink).
As for car conversations, just wait until you are carting her friends around - when we take the kids' friends places, I get to listen in on the most hilarious kid conversations ever.
If you're driving the bandwagon, stop by the house to pick me up.
Oh thank goodness I'm not the only one who feels this way! We have a problem with having the DVD player *IN* our car, but we only ever let it out for trips over two hours. Deacon went to VA with his grandparents recently and they took our car because of that. For the next week, he kept pointing at the ceiling and saying "Elmo!"
I did consider how I'd get away with murder when MIL played it for him for a five minute trip before we got our vehicle back.
@Gina, I have a friend who's kids have to have the car TV on every. single. time. they get in the car. I freaked out when she told me how great it was. Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather have a kid who wants to look at his books on short trips.
Oh man, Alexis's is getting the best hair ever - looks wicked!! Yay for growing hair!!
Yep, only for long car rides. They watch enough here at home anyway. Her eyes are so pretty in that picture!
I fully agree. I'm against the "TV cars" for two reasons. One is the turning kids into zombies who are incapable of existing unless the magic box entertains them. Stupid. The other is the fact that I think those things are unsafe. Am I the only one who gets distracted driving behind a car that has a tv screen? I nearly rear-end people trying to identify what they're watching! Fight the power.
Best conversations in the car - absolutely. Juliana comes up with the most random topics and little tidbits I wouldn't normally hear from her.
We have the pull down DVD in the van but it's only been used a few times since most of our driving is local.
this is so good and SO true... we are a DOWN WITH THE TV house. we have one, we watch movies mostly- but it goes days at a time without turning on. and as for the car? no thanks... yuck.
Yes, ma'am, preaching to the choir. Also, my huge pet peeve is kids playing portable video games in stores. What happened to learning good old fashioned patience? Not to mention social skills and developing their imagination. I used to make up stories in my head whenever I had to go somewhere boring with mom.
Climbing off my soapbox now...
oh, and btw, this is the second comment I've left where your comment system didn't like my url. To that I say :P. :)
We use our DVD player in the van a lot - because we're in the car a lot (I'm talking over 2 hours every.single.day). Books SOUND like a great idea, but my kids get car sick. Motion sickness = no reading while moving. They can't hear me from the third row unless I yell because of the noise of the road and I can't exactly tell them to "go play" so Elmo has come to the rescue more than once.
We DON'T use it every day, though, and usually for just one of the two trips (we pick the boys up from [separate] school). Sadly, having a "TV in the ceiling" doesn't make you cool :)
I think if the short person tries to test the rules, you're doing the right thing. But I also know that I'm just doing what I have to do to survive (not that I think you're judging, though). Stick to your guns!
@KimZ: no, you are not the only one. I don't care what people are watching, but the moving pictures draw the eye whether you want it to or not. Every time I see a dumbo-mobile going down the street with the TV playing inside, I start wondering where I can buy a bazooka.
And I'm not normally road-raged.
Agree.
We keep saying we are going to purchase one for long trips (the ride to Pittsburgh is brutal) but we haven't done it yet. If/when we do, it will only be for long trips. Drives me crazy when I hear parents complain that they can't go to the grocery store w/o turning on a movie...who is the grown up?
Long-time reader, but don't think I've ever commented before....
But this is one of my major pet peeves. I do not have kids yet, but like many future parents, I already have many opinions about parenting, thanks in part to how I grew up. My grandparents live in NY and we used to take 2-day trips up to visit them when my family was living in Mississippi (that's right - 2-day long car trips, at least four times a year, with a family of six).
Those car trips helped me learn geography, spelling, shapes, etc. We did puzzles and read (I did get motion sickness on occasion but I learned young how to deal with it). I don't see how watching TV in a car wouldn't lead to motion sickness if reading does...and it was a good time to bond with my parents. Technology is a wonderful tool, but it is not a babysitter. So go you.
I agree totally.
This past summer both girlys got their very own portable DVD player. It does NOT come into the car with us unless it is a long distance trip. NOPE. NOPE. NOPE.
They watch too much TV as is. We went an entire two weeks without the Disney channel and they were suffering withdrawl symptoms. Unless they know every word to every episode of 'The Wizards of Waverly Place' they are terribly crabby.
UGH!
She is getting so big, and I have been a neglectful friends and blogger.
Waves hello to you and yours. Hope to see you the next get together.
I think those steely blue eyes can pierce the soul.
So true. When the tv is turned on, the conversation gets turned off. I always had the best conversations with my mom driving in the car or standing by the radiator while she did dishes.
Considering Alex is going to be rearfacing for at least 2-3+ more years (his convertible goes to 45lbs rfing), it'd be totally stupid for me to have a vehicle with a dvd player in the ceiling. However, if in the future when we get out "truck of our dreams" for pulling our camper, it has built-in dvd, we'll only reserve it for long road trips.
I've seen people watching pr0n on them while driving down the road before!
I completely agree.
I used to think that we should even have one for long car trips, but I now that we've done a few, I have changed my tune on that! The portable DVD player is fantastic for the long car trips, but only for those.
My best friend is one of those with the DVD player that's always playing. When Little Man was a baby, he was staying at my BF's sister's house two days a week while I worked from home. It was a trek, about 30-40 mn from my house and BF's friend, so she'd bring my kiddo in the morning and then I'd bring all the kids home in the afternoon.
The first time her daughter got in my car (she was four at the time), she gasped. "Where's your TV?" I told her I didn't have one. She wailed "What are we going to do?" I told her we'd talk, sing songs and just have fun.
She was confused and puzzled. But soon, we'd have the greatest talks in the car and she would crack me up so much, I couldn't wait for Little Man to be four. I'd tell my best friend every night about the stories her daughter would tell me.
But then the kids would get put in the car and she'd turn on the TV. She's not a bad person, she's my best friend and I think the world of her. But I always felt a little sad that she's missing out on so much great talking because she got the kids hooked on that damn tv.
i won't be getting one.
We have the same rule for our portable DVD player, and so far we've been lucky enough not to have any battles over it. But I'm sure that will change. These little turds are SMART.