The Digital Road Trip

This article appeared in the National Post on Friday, January 10, 2010.

The first time we drove to Florida, five years ago, the boys were aged one, three and four. We could have flown and saved ourselves 20 hours of claustrophobic “family time,” but my husband and I thought our kids should experience a good old-fashioned road trip, like the ones we’d had. Not to mention, it was cheaper. Barely any families we knew dared take long road trips any more. They would rather soar above the clouds in comfort – even if their credit cards rose with them (these were pre-recession times). But my husband and I took pride in our thriftiness the same way a 16-year-old takes pride in her sun tan.

And, we figured, if our parents could do it, why couldn’t we? True to this nostalgic impulse, I refused to pack electronic gadgetry to occupy my children’s minds. Our van had no DVD player and we owned no video games. I didn’t need that stuff when I was a kid. Why should they? Instead, I packed books: activity books, picture books, pop-up books, sticker books. These, I believed, would beguile them for hours, and, for variety, we’d play I Spy or gaze at the blur of horses and cows in passing pastures. After all, kids like that kind of stuff. At the last minute, however, we were offered an old laptop from my husband’s company at a great price. We caved. We loaded it with kids’ movies and packed it in the backseat beside the books – just in case.

Day 1 started at 3 a.m., “to make good time,” as my husband put it. The kids, bundled and tethered to their seats, were too excited to fall back asleep. Lucky us. We drove through the dark with rear passenger lights glowing as the two older boys looked at books and asked for snacks. My youngest, Cole, cried and whined, then, tired, fell asleep.

By early morning, the books had been tossed aside and the laptop was playing back-to-back movies.

By early morning, the books had been tossed aside and the laptop was playing back-to-back movies. It staved off any chance of boredom (I told myself) and allowed me to focus on appeasing my one-year-old. We were all relieved when, 16 hours after leaving our home in Oakville, Ont., we settled into a motel in Georgia for the night.

On Day 2, the laptop broke. The books were scattered across the minivan floor and my homemade muffins weren’t cutting it any more. I resorted to tossing candy bars, lollipops and Dunkaroos at the backseat to mute the chorus of complaint. I found that sugar, if doled out in small increments, sustained contentment indefinitely.

Though not impatience. “When will we be there?” was their favourite conversation starter.

“Soon,” I’d reply, my curt answer warranted because, first, kids have no concept of time and, second, I’d hardly slept in Georgia, thanks to my restless baby, and was too tired to keep my eyes open, much less move my mouth to talk. Now, I had to preserve my weary voice for singing, because nothing kept Cole happier than hearing me warble on about dogs named Bingo.

When we finally arrived at the beach, my husband and I congratulated ourselves. We had 10 days of vacation to refresh ourselves before driving home. I was jittery about the return trip, travelling laptop-free for two days. How would the kids manage? How would we?

Now that I had a new appreciation for the digitalization of children’s pastimes, I needn’t have worried. On our way home we came upon a Walmart in South Carolina and got a bargain on a portable DVD player and electronic toys.

We bought them, just in case.

This year we drove to Florida for the fourth time with the same DVD player plus three Nintendos DS portable video games. It was a breeze. I don’t know how my parents did it.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2421376#ixzz0d5wVib13
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