Time for the Soapbox
Published December 4th, 2006 in Travelin', It's Really Just All About Me..., Boob Tube.
I know a lot of bloggers like to rant and rave about seemingly petty things and it can be rather annoying. But I’ve got something stuck in a corner of my brain and I can’t shake it loose — so… I’m going to go on my own rant and get it out of my system.
I don’t like DVD players in cars. It’s not that I’m some old crusty sourpuss who hates technology — I love the gadgets and gizmos! I just don’t like it when parents use DVD players in their bloated SUVs or plastic minivans to show the latest CGI Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar/Sony extravaganza of super-cute fuzzy creatures and use them to babysit their kid(s).
This kind of goes back to my fear and/or hatred of TV for my little one… But are we such a selfish nation of narcissistic primadonnas that we really can’t be bothered to actually, oh… I don’t know… talk to our children? What’s wrong with spending that classic cliche of ‘quality time‘ with our kids?
Finding out what they learned at school that day?
Finding out which kids they played dodgeball with at recess?
Finding out if they managed to play I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours in the coatroom?
I don’t know if does any harm to have Junior sitting in the backseat, watching Toy Story 6, while you’re jawing away on your cellphone. And Junior may not have any interest or desire in talking with you anyway. But since when do we ever do what our kids want to do?
Why, back in my day, we didn’t have all them there new fangled dee-vices and such in the automobile. Hell, we was lucky to have AM radio, I tell ya! But I do remember, riding and in the car and being forced by my mom to tell her exactly what I learned that day in math class and which historical figures we discussed in social science class. Did I like to do it? No. Did she care about those details? Probably not.
Did I go postal and cap 43 people from the top of the clock tower with a high-powered assault rifle? Uh… not yet. But, I bet I don’t. Did I go on to get a masters degree? Yep. I just know that sitting and watching someone else’s imagination at work doesn’t do a whole terribly lot for your imagination. Why not stimulate their minds by engaging them in conversation? Why not enhance their communication skills by talking to them? Why not worry more about your kids than yourself?
Again, if you’ve got a portable DVD Babysitter in your car, it’s not the end of the world. I just ask that you don’t turn it on every time you want to tune your little ones out just so you can gossip about last night’s episode of The Bachelor on the phone with your best friend.
Okay. Time to put the soapbox away. End of rant.
What do you think?
Well I don’t even like SUV’s (I apolgize if you have one) so the DVD player is an added bonus of suck. I don’t know how I feel about it as I have no children yet, but I do know that I sure enjoy watching Nemo with my nephew in the back of my sister’s car. Hrm, maybe that is their way to shut ME up!
I rented a loaded Chrysler mini-van last year to drive to California with my wife, sister-in-law (The General), brother-in-law (Picasso), and their then 1.5 year old (Gunslinger).
The DVD player was a great distraction for Gunslinger. I agree with you that kids need parental interaction/stimulation on short journeys - to school, to the store, to the mall, etc. - but man, when you’re driving halfway across the country…
In the words of Tony the Tiger - “They’re GREAT!“
I’m with you… I don’t like those built-in players which are turned on every time the family loads up the mini-van.
However, we have a little portable one that we prop up between the two front seats, but ONLY for long car trips of two hours or more. It really helps pass the time on those cross-country drives. But we also make sure the kids do other things, like read, look out the window, nap, daydream, play games, talk.
The DVD player is just one thing to help boring trips go by more smoothly. But for trips to the grocery store? That’s just overkill.
Oh, that’s one of my peeves too. I work at a preschool and this is one of the biggest peeves I have about that place. Mom’s coming in there saying, “I got you.. for the car ride.” It’s always the brand new movies too. Our town is SMALL. I’m talking at the most to get from one side to the other is 20 minutes, 30 if the traffic sucks. Most people are in the car for about 10 minutes.
My daughter has very strong language skills. I think it’s from making her talk in the car. We play games with words - rhymes, change one letter, whatever. That time is uninterrupted captive audience. USE it.
Now, if I was driving a long distance, I MIGHT think about a portable. However, my daughter read for 5 hours in one day when we traveled last school year. (She got her 300 minutes required by school for the month with no effort that time).
I say - why just attach it to the car? Why not to their heads?
(I’m kidding, of course…but I might not be in 3 years)
This is why I did not get the dvd option in my new vehicle when I got one. We knew that if my daughter knew it was there, she would whine to watch movies (she’s only 2 1/2, that’s what they do at that age) every time she got in the car.
We are considering a portable one because we make a lot of long trips back home, and it can be useful (we’re also taking a plane trip in January, and may use it for the sanity of the other passengers in an emergency).
We only plan to use it if needed. We always bring my Mac laptop along, and we bring DVDs for that, if needed. Fortuntely, we only “needed” it once. But the battery life sucks. And if it is an “emergency” that last thing you want is for the kid to get a “taste” of a movie and then have it taken away…
And if we don’t wind up using it much for our daughter (I hope), then it becomes a nifty gadget for me
I’m seeing a trend. We also have a portable DVD player, but only use it for six-hour trips to Iowa.
On the other hand, I suppose the DVD keeps kids distracted from the wake of bodies and wreckage left by the SUV…
We have a portable one, used only for long trips. It was a gift from a Grandma that wants us to visit more.
Thanks for the replies, everybody! I’m with everyone on the portables. Whenever we have to travel back to Ohio, I always use my iBook with the DVD player. Making L.A. Toddler sit in an airplane seat for 5 hours is a task that requires every tool known to man to keep her happy. I always bring her DVDs to watch on the plane - and I even bought extra batteries for my laptop to keep up with her.
I’m just not a fan of the ones in the car that are automatically turned on whenever the car starts up. I see them all the time while driving around town. It drives me nuts.