Riding in cars with boys (and a girl)

The conversation went something like this...
Friend - "The trip was fun, but the car ride was insain. Three kids arguing most of the way. We finally broke down and got all of them seperate portable DVD's b/c the one we have mounted could never be agreed upon what they would watch. I don't know how you do it with five. Thank goodness for DVD's in the car right? hahaha."

Me - "DVD's? We don't have a DVD player in our van."

Friend - "What? Are you crazy? You don't travel?"

Me - "We do travel. We travel to Florida several times a year to visit hubby's family, go the beach, and Orlando. Several times a year actually and usually 8-10 hour drives."

Friend - "I don't understand."

Me - "We didn't have TV's in our cars when we were kids. Didn't you travel?"

Friend - "Well yeah but my kids would drive me crazy if we didn't have all their electronics with us."

Me - "I think this is the best time to bond as a family. We really get to know a lot about each other being stuck in a car for 10 hours. We play games, bingo w/ signs and landmarks, talk, read, I Spy, we write down all the places that we see on lisence plates... It's really a lot of fun. They do have gameboys, I-Pods, and my mom just recently bought them portable DVD players but I have found they really enjoy telling me stories and things that they don't normally get to talk about with our busy lives. They use these things after we've been in the car for hours and they get tired. The last trip we took they had the DVD players in boxes in the back and never even took them out. They ended up using them in the hotel and all watch the same one. They write stories about adventures we will have on our trip and write down things that have already happened. It's nice to look back and have the memories on paper."

Friend - "Oh that's too much kid time for me. I like my own music or sleeping."

Me wondering to myself..."Why do you have kids? Don't you even want to know them?"'

Several times a year we travel. I even travel by myself with no husband to be an extra driver and negotiator. And guess what? We make it all in once piece everytime. It's amazing to me that people even have their kids watch TV on the way to the store which could be a 5 minute drive. And people wonder why their children struggle in school with focus or lack there of. Or why they didn't know their child was being bullied at school, or that they are the bully. Talk to your kids people. Get to know them!