Monday, May 28, 2007

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread and Disposable Diapers!

Today we embarked on a two and a half hour car trip to Michigan, and what do you know, that portable DVD player is worth its weight in gold! That was the best, quietest road trip we've had with Addy since she was a year old and decided that her carseat was the enemy. True, we had to listen to the sounds of Veggie Tales and Baby Einstein, which numb you out to adult conversation in the same eerie manner that they do at home, but it was a small price to pay to also have the blessed sound of silence from the carseat.
I definitely recommend the purchase of one of these bad boys to anyone with small children who may have to drive further than a half hour at any point in the near future. Especially if you only have ONE kid who has no one else in the backseat to entertain her, or if you have multiple children who do NOT entertain each other but only antagonize each other. Either situation is ideal for portable digital entertainment! Two thumbs up!
Side note: If child/children in backseat eventually fall asleep, portable digital entertainment is also not too shabby for the passenger in the front seat. So see that you bring suitable media for adult riders as well as your stash of sing-a-longs for the kids.
Unfortunately, I have no real brand recommendation to offer. I couldn't even tell you off the top of my head which ours is. I just know that the concept and product in general is excellent. Overpriced, yes, but excellent, and in ten years I bet those suckers will be as commonplace as cell phones. No minivan will come equipped without one! The only potential problem I could see is if you had a wide range of ages in one backseat, and the ten year old was threatening to leap out the car window if they had to sit through a Sesame Street movie one more time just to keep the toddler happy. Or vice versa. You probably wouldn't want the kindergartner watching some PG-13 fare which the teenagers had brought along. Definitely a conundrum there, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

3 kids, different ages?
solution: 3 dvd player w/headphones

Swistle said...

My dad figured out how to rig his DVD-playing laptop in the car, so we'll have that when we take a 2-year-old on two days' worth of driving. Thank goodness.

We would have a problem if we were going with all the kids: at home, we have two toddlers rapt over Blue's Clues while two older children mock it mercilessly.

Jennifer said...

I second your recommendation!!!

d e v a n said...

oh yes, we have one and it was worth every penny. Every penny.
It doesn't keep him silent the whole 16 hour trip to TX, but it helps. Thank goodness!

Lady Tramaine said...

Listen, mine is 13 and he will watch movies and/or play video games with headphones on for any trip over and hour. It helps me get past all the teenage angst that just flows naturally around our house! I am all about the car dvd player! Good call!