Both of my sisters had two children in quick succession ... in recent years I watched as one sister and then the other relented, buying DVD players for their cars. For long trips. I thought they were such a luxury.
I have resisted for so long. Dave asked me about it once - "Nope. I was bored in cars when I was a kid and it didn't kill me." No it didn't, but then again, this is what my youngest child turns into halfway through a long car trip:
Squashed into his forehead is the red crayon from the pack of crayons I bought him, to do some "fun playtime in the car."
The following week, I bought a DVD player with two headsets - OH MY GOD. It's changed my car-journeying life. The silence .... she is GOLDEN.
Back when Dave and I were just, like, boyfriend/girlfriend ... I used to make him mix tapes. (Except they were CDs, I was being ironic.) I'd call them things like "Davey Gravy .. with a Bullet! Or "Davez Eazter Hitz!" .. and take into account where he was travelling to. Sometimes to his annual African drumming camp at Bundagen, sometimes just down to his mums and back. I'd plan and plot those songs and agonise over which order to put them in. He needed something cruisy to start off with, then hardcore rock, reflective/bluesy ... and back to cruisy. He loved them.
I am the boss of music in our relationship ... he fully thinks he turned me on to Eminem with the Recovery album. The only way I could convince him otherwise was to break out into the full rendition of Cleanin' out my Closet circa 2001. We were out in public at the time and he hissed at me - Ok ok you found him first now SHUT UP.
Sometimes, I find an old CD mix tape that I made him and put it on ... how badly do songs remind you of the time you first heard them? Songs at the beginning of our relationship were Drops of Jupiter by Train, or Smooth by Rob Thomas and Santana. Completely vanilla. I grab Dave and remind him urgently. "Remember, hon? Remember back when it was just us and we'd go for drives and you'd light my ciggie for me in that old bomb ute?"
Back before everything got so bloody complicated.
Music is my essential part of any roadtrip. Rocco even has his own album, called "Do Fun Stuff." I would like to thank Ryan from Pacing the Panic Room for the song "Potty Time." You helped my child not take dumps on the floor, Ryan. I owe you. Big time.
What's your car music? Have you relented like me and bought a DVD player for the car? Or do you think the olden days were better?
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This is a Kidspot Top 50 post on the theme "Roadtrip." The Ford has a DVD player in the ceiling. Technically, I could have two different DVD players, playing at the same time. My kids would never get out of the car.
Alas, I am at work and cannot view your video. ALAS, I am at work. It is Saturday.
ReplyDeleteNo DVD player in my car but I do take one on the plane. I rarely end up watching it but it is ever present on flights much as the valium is. I have an IPod [it is possessed] that I wear to block out the music that my husband chooses on drives [I am always the designated driver but only because he starts drinking before I get the chance] He prefers Country music. Me? NOT
With all our trips back and forth to Sydney for Oscar's appointments, we finally relented and bought a dvd player for Roo after a particularly horrendous trip. It added over $100 to our travel costs that trip, but has since saved me hours and hours of "Mummy, mummy, muuu-huuummmy" "Yes?" "Get out?" "Soon, sweety." "Mummy, mummy, muu-hummy?" "Yes Roo?" "Get OUT!!!!!"
ReplyDeleteAs children we spend hours and hours and hours in the car. Oh my, my poor pooor parents!!!
Dear Technology, you ROCK, love Daisy.
I still make mix tapes on CD, I will get with technology eventually! My car has a 6 CD changer so I can have hours of my home made beauties on repeat on any long trip. I love the power of music to bring back memories, the power to make you forgot about your crappy day. The odd glances you get when stuck in traffic and can be heard singing loudly to the sounds that remind you of the best time of your life - in my case all the grunge bands from the early 90's makes me laugh, and just sing louder. Love love love that picture of Rocco it made me smile, but you were right to buy the DVD player xoxo
ReplyDeleteWe had a DVD player for the car and it broke, now my son has a laptop so he watches movies back there. Between that and the iPod. I love the silence. Leaves me free to listen to my own playlists on my iPod which is conveinently hooked up to the car stereo.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a DVD player installed in the car, but we do have a portable DVD player. The kids keep telling us the next car we get should absolutely have one though!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah... we have a portable DVD player. I don't know how we would do long road trips without it. It also works well when I can't get a sitter and have to take him to meetings. :-)
ReplyDeleteAbout time you caught up to this century and got those flamin' kids something to do in the car!!!
ReplyDeleteMate you KNOW what my favourite car trippin' music is. How much do I love roaring into your quiet bushland neighbourhood, with a good ol' 90s dance tune blasting out of the vehicle??? C&C Music Factory, Salt n Pepa, Neneh Cherry, yeah baby...
I cannot listen to Chris Rea's On The Beach without a pang. He makes me yearn for my life of 1986...
ReplyDeleteWe drive to NSW every Christmas. Our car has a DVD player in it. So far though, we have never used it.
I am not sure if that makes me mother of the year or complete dumbfuck of the year...
Nah.... We still counting wind mills, playing I spy, singing stupid songs like 'my eyes are dim' what the hell is that song anyway? And straining our necks to entertain the kids... By picking up the bloody crayons they keep droping..
ReplyDeleteHoney, our first portable DVD player SAVED OUR ARSES on our trip to Italy in 2005 with a 3yo and 18mth old. Phew. Nemo and The Wiggles played over and over and over again.
ReplyDeleteWe now have THREE port DVD players. They come with us on trips all the time.
I remember being dead bored on 8 hour drives every year up to north WA. Oh, how much more pleasant it would have been for me - and my parents - had I one. The Benny Hill tapes just weren't cutting it, quite frankly.
xxx
I don't have a DVD player and since I still drive a 2-door with
ReplyDelete2-kids, I'm not sure it would work very well. However, I certainly wish I did have a DVD player in a much bigger vehicle. On our road trips it's crowded and my boy gets car sick after about 20 minutes. No. fun. at. all. Someday...until then I can live vicariously through your blog post.
You know what I'm looking forward to? A time when my 19 month old STOPS TAKING OFF THE FUCKING HEADPHONES and then wondering why she can't hear anything and then me almost having a crash because I am trying to retrieve said headphones and explain for the 176th time how this shit works.
ReplyDeleteOne day.
Headsets? I need headsets. Why didn't I think of headsets? x
ReplyDeleteI'm still going with the road trippers tactic of snacks that come in little fiddly pieces and lots of tupperware to open, Mummy music and Munchkin Music time, books and small toys. I loved daydreaming out the window and watching the world pass by as a kid and want to try for that as much as possible first.
ReplyDeleteHubby used to make me mix tapes but I never felt confident or had the time. He does the music I do the artwork. Plus, he probs wouldn't want to listen to Madonna, Norah Jones, Fiona Apple on his drives..
I have been seriously thinking about getting one of those DVD players.
ReplyDeleteMax used to light my ciggies for me too, in my old, old BMW :)
We bought a dual DVD player for the girls. OK so it was more for our sanity, but then some dumb woman left the car unlocked and it was stolen. Some random hoodlum stole my sanity.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of getting another one and writing notes on my hands to lock the bloody car.
Cleanin' Out My Closet was 2001? Where did those 10 years go?
ReplyDelete2001? That has flown... Read your title and started singing LOL, I like your taste in music. We don't have a car DVD player, it would probably go against our whole life without television thing. I can see the advantages though, anything to stop the constant fighting!
ReplyDeleteto this day I still call my music mixes "I Love You Janey Briggs Mixtape" thanks to Not Another Teen Movie.
ReplyDeleteand I had no idea crayons could be squished like that... I am now terrified.
No DVD player for the car. Adamant on this one. We bought one for a flight to China and back. It lasted one year before the little one tossed it across the room and broke it. Music, on the other hand, is essential to any road trip.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I found you via Wanderlust. So glad I did.
A DVD player, no but iPad - yes. My personal iPad but has one page dedicated to all things kids. My 3 yr old is entertained for hours and now I have a charge that reaches to the back of the car so no worries about it shutting down. My 18mth old is still content to look out window or look at brother using iPad. Or eat.
ReplyDeleteIf iPad is unavailable I find turning the car stereo up to just slightly louder then the kids screaming works well. Can not hear a thing! High pitch dance tracks with a solid base take out every tone of a toddlers "BUT MUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMM"
Finally, however, Mophead's (3 yr old) favorite song is as follows... Nirvana "Where did u sleep last night". We have to listen to it over and over again, but I don't mind ;).
Music is definitely important, especially during car rides. Sadly, the husband and I don't agree when it comes to the radio, so I need to start sneaking in some CD's.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a DVD player *yet*, but we also don't take trips much longer than 45 minutes, so we haven't had a need. Hubs does bust out the Mickey shorts on his iPhone if the booger starts getting too crazy while we're out and about.
Also? I LOVE "Do Fun Stuff." Ryan and Cole and the crew at PTPR are awesome and I found a new favorite musician in Radical Face (he does "Missing Teeth") thanks to that album. Seriously, check out the YouTube video for his song "Welcome Home". Chills!
First, let me say that I am loving your kidspot posts and the ribena one. You are my role model for how to do sponsorship - truly, you find a way in to this stuff, Eden, to put yourself there and make it interesting and deep and funny and not remotely cheesy and lame. It's a rare skill.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I just found a mix tape in a pile of stuff I discovered when decluttering the basement. I am going to listen to it and maybe save it to show C an old-timey piece of musical technology. Then I will be back in 1997, wondering what my life will turn out to be, hoping it doesn't include a flooded stinking basement and the haggard demeanor of one who never feels caught up with life. Sigh.