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Original poster

No screen use during car journeys, am I being old fashioned?

325 replies

midnightvelvetPart2 · 15/08/2015 09:35

I do not let our DC's (9 & 6) play on screens during car journeys but I'm wondering whether I'm being a little outdated? :) they have regular screen time at home & if we are stationary in traffic jams then they can use them, but if we are just driving along then they are not allowed. I'm talking tablets/DS/handheld gaming things.

I used to get carsick to the point of vomiting if I ever tried to read a book in a car, so I wasn't allowed & this may be influencing it. DS1 used to get carsick but he hasn't been in 4 years.

I'm doubting myself now as we drove back from holiday yesterday & it was a journey of 4 hours. My dad phoned, the kids complained about the journey & that they were bored & he said well they can play on their tablets etc but when I said they weren't allowed to he was a bit taken aback. We play I Spy & Sausage etc & have music & audiobooks on so its not a silent car, DS2 usually sleeps at some point.

What does everyone do?

OP posts:
gaslamp · 17/08/2015 17:21

Another who doesn't get the mumsnet obsession with screen time! We just did a 14 hr journey across Europe and our girls used their tablets whenever they wanted - to read books, play games, listen to music or audiobooks etc. DD1 did some coding on the laptop until the battery died. Screens are not just about futile activity - I think this is the point many miss and need to educate themselves on (so that their kids don't miss out). But on a car journey - does it even matter what they are doing?

chumbler · 17/08/2015 17:50

wow, why make the journey harder for you and boring for them? especially on holiday - it's supposed to be fun!

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 17/08/2015 17:59

It's really not that bad Grin

We never made a rule about it, just late adopters

I find with bigger kids the enforced intimacy of the car is at least interesting

At home everyone's all over the house, gazing at own screens, out, or shoving food in as quickly as they possibly can so they can get back to whatever they're doing

In the car, we're all dependent on each other for amusement-me and OH have to talk to each other too, not just the kids

It's fun (I realise that makes me sound nauseating)

I think if you don't use tablets and so on in the car, you can start-but you can't go back the other way without a mutiny

Methe · 17/08/2015 18:01

Our journey here was as much fun as an 750 mile drive can be! The kids played on their hudls, Dd read to DS, we played eye spy, we talked, we listened to HP audio books, that ate, they slept..

Allowing screens in cars doesn't have to be at the exclusion of everything else. It is perfectly possible to be a good parent and allow your children to stare at a screen occasionally!

I hear the "it does kids good to be bored" argument and agree with it.. My favourite saying is "only boring people get bored" so mine are pretty good at entertaining themselves.. I'm not sure why I would worry about that too much on a huge drive though.

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 17/08/2015 18:01

...mind you this time next week we'll have endured a 16 hour drive to France

I might well have changed my mind by then

feesh · 17/08/2015 18:03

I don't let mine use screens in the car, the main reason being that anything big and hard like an iPad is actually a pretty dangerous missile in the event of a crash. It could do a lot of damage to someone who might otherwise have escaped unharmed.

Everything is strapped down in our car, except soft toys.

SirChenjin · 17/08/2015 21:25

So are books...

Osmiornica · 17/08/2015 21:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MadamArcatiAgain · 17/08/2015 22:22

new life I suspect you never went on very long car journeys or you have a short memory

Gooseberrycrumble2 · 17/08/2015 22:24

Osmi - we chat and have laughs, read, listen to audios, play games looking at the landscape or clouds. We are less likely to have a mass singalong on a plane though - we save that for the car!

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 17/08/2015 22:51

we don't fly-just do driving holibobs

the last time we went on a plane (10+ years ago) we watched the Manchurian Candidate (I think) with the sound off cos we were too tight to buy a headset

Grin

in fact looking back through my posts you could be forgiven for thinking we go on holiday in one of those covered wagons pulled by oxen like in Laura Ingalls Wilder book

[luddite face]

if the kids are really good I let em have a slate and an apple

ArcheryAnnie · 17/08/2015 22:53

I don't limit screen time at home.

But travel is anyway the only place I do limit his screen time - there's a lot of interest to be found in chatting on a journey, looking out of the window, spotting whatever is out there, and so on. I don't like the idea of training him to be absolutely helpless in the face of a few hours with company, and with an ever-changing view of stuff to see, if he doesn't have a screen in his hand. I'd like him to be at least nominally capable of finding enough interest in his surroundings and inside his own head.

ArcheryAnnie · 17/08/2015 22:55

I don't let mine use screens in the car, the main reason being that anything big and hard like an iPad is actually a pretty dangerous missile in the event of a crash.

Blimey, feesh, I hadn't thought of that, but you are right.

SirChenjin · 18/08/2015 06:40

No-one is 'helpless' Annie - they simply like a variety of activities.

Books are also missiles - as are any unsecured objects.

Heels99 · 18/08/2015 08:16

Our DVD screens are secured to the back of the headrests with some kind of vice they are a bugger to get off so don't think they are potential missiles.

Gooseberrycrumble2 · 18/08/2015 08:16

Looking out of a window isn't boring. It's constantly changing

bruffin · 18/08/2015 08:31

I find looking out the window frustrating. I see a glimpse of something then its gone and cant always work out what it is.
Yesterday we went out for the day. Dd had her headphones on and mobile. Ds had his mobile. We had different music in the front. I had my mobile as well. We still managed to chat and dd noticed an open chip shop. Its not all or nothing with "sceens"

muminhants1 · 18/08/2015 12:00

Most train commuters use tablets or e-readers for their journeys. A few read paper books. The others tend to doze for the duration.

Why is it ok for adults on trains but not for kids in cars on probably much longer journeys? I don't get it.

As for satnav, we don't have it. I use the old-fashioned thing of looking at a map. Works for us.

LaContessaDiPlump · 18/08/2015 12:20

We haven't used screens as yet - kids are 4 and 3yo. We haven't deliberately avoided them or anything though - I think it just doesn't really occur to us, as screens weren't a feature of car journeys when we were younger. We do take books and toys and chat, sing songs etc. Plus journeys are often timed in hopes of maximising the chances of sleep Wink

I agree with what pp said about the potential horror of running out of batteries Confused

mellowheart · 18/08/2015 12:38

www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-reading-in-a-mov/
Thought this might interest anyone who wonders why they feel sick while reading in the car.

BabyGanoush · 18/08/2015 13:10

Mellow, that is a good article, and states what I had found out myself (years ago) when I was trying to explain this affliction to the DC (who have sadly inherited my propensity to travel sickness)

Apparently the brain thinks it's been poisoned, hence the vomiting.

middlings · 18/08/2015 14:11

I have a 2 & 3 year old, and a wonderful £10 contraption from Amazon into which my iPad sits which facilitates it being attached to the back middle headrest. The DDs are in both in rear facing seats. When on the way back from France, and getting caught in the hell that was Operation Stack, I wasn't thinking too much about mindfulness. I was thinking about how much more Peppa I could ring out of the iPad.

We don't do it for shorter journeys as I usually time them with when I want the children to sleep.

No different to the audio tapes we had as a kid as far as I'm concerned.

whois · 18/08/2015 14:28

I used to get really badly car sick, but strangely playing on my game boy as long as I couldn't see outside the car really helped and stopped me feeling sick.

I don't see why no screens on a car journey? Surely they are just things to be endured rather than cherished so do whatever - listen to audiobooks, sleep, play on a screen.

SoupDragon · 18/08/2015 14:31

As for satnav, we don't have it. I use the old-fashioned thing of looking at a map. Works for us.

I prefer to keep my eyes on the road rather than try to drive and read a map.

I bought a SatNav after I got lost on a diversion with only small children in the car, none of whom could read the map for me.

GraysAnalogy · 18/08/2015 14:32

People just need to start accepting that screens are the modern day entertainment and not something that needs such resistance. Times change, things advance.

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