Never Say Never...

...when it comes to your kids.

I am about to eat my words and shell out $100 on a DVD player for the car. For the longest time I laughed, scoffed, and joked about any car that would pass that had a kid watching a DVD. Don't kids watch enough TV these days at home? Do they really need to watch more while in the car? Then Jed and I went on a trip. Okay so it was only 3 hours to a friends house but still the thought of me and 2 1/2 year old enclosed in a small inescapable space for 3 hours was enough for me to ask to borrow my niece's portable DVD player. We watched Chicken Little both going and returning and it was the smoothing traveling ever.

We returned the player only to borrow it again last month to go to the beach. 9+ hours of driving, one way, a delight!!! (well except for the hour long span of traveling 5 mph which wasn't a delight however it wasn't torturous either). I've yet to return the player so every morning on our way to school (easily a 40 minute drive) Jed asks to watch Chicken Little. We have watched it so much he now sings along with the songs and will speak some of the dialogue along with the movie. (I need to try to record his version of One Little Slip). I've tried to get him to change movies but all he wants is Chicken Little. Which is fine by me. We no longer have fussing, whining or complaining during the drive. (And I still laugh everytime I hear "Ok kids we're playing Dodgeball. It's Popular versus Unpopular!")

So when I get paid this weekend, it is off to find a decent priced DVD player for the car. Now all the other parents driving non-DVD equipped cars can laugh at me while I get to enjoy my commute and being serenaded by my son.

I wonder if summer vacations as a child, traveling from NY to TN in the back of a Datsun (Nissan) 280ZX would have been more bearable if my sister and I had access to a DVD player?