I am thinking of buying a portable DVD player, will it really change my life?

[JackBauerKilledTheEasterBunny]

I am going on holiday shortly with DD's (3.3 and 18 months)
It involves 2 hour car drive in this country, 3 hour flight and 3 hour bus transfer.

IL's and my mum live across the UK and it takes 2 hours and 3 hours resepctively to get to them. I normally drive this on my own with DH convoying on his bike. We do one of these journeys every 6 or 7 weeks at least.

Will it really make that much difference to the journeys? I have the money saved but am getting tense about spending it

it will! get one. make sure you get one that is sufficiently uncomplicated for a three year old to use so that you're not bothered while driving.

get one get one get one get one get one get one!!
we have just come back from Egypt and the flight and packing were SO much easier with the addition of Thomas and Night Garden. We lent it to a family on the plane who were having dreadful trouble with their 3 yr old, it was a godsend!!

oooh yes! We had one for DS when we flew to Syria - both times and it made the plane journey that much easier. We also took the wires to link to TV and so he was able to watch his favourite DVDs there...

Its also great for watching in bed as well - I have mine on my bedside table and to just lie there watching a good film until sleepy is just bliss!

I got one the last year when DH was taking DS to Malaysia on his own. DH said it was very useful, especially as one of the seatback videos on the plane wasn't working for one of the legs.

It is helpful for getting around the region-code on DVDs, as PiJC points out you can take the DVDs that you know your child enjoys and be sure that they will be watchable.

I wouldn't say life-changing though, but then both my kids would tend to sleep for at least an hour or two in the car on a long journey.

We have one but have only used it once - on a 6 hr train journey. It was a life-saver at 8pm when they were ratty and tired.

Haven't tried it in the car yet, DS1 is car-sick so am worried it will set him off.

I have recently bought one to take on flight (to Oz! gulp!) to keep my dds entertained.

took it last weekend when we went to visit friends, and was a lifesaver. dd1 is ASD, and her rutine involves watching Mr tumble before bed - now no hassle at all, as can do so wherever we are without disrutpting whole households.

I have one where my iPod plugs in, so I load up programmes/photos/films onto iPod, then plug in and away you go. Also takes normal dvds. It's brilliant as don't have to take loads of dvds along as can store it all on iPod.

Ooh, ok. Am nearly convinced

I was orginally thinking of loading up an MP4 but this would be sooooo much easier. Plus the one I am looking at has 2 headphone sockets!

They don't really sleep in the car. They do
throw things at each other,
need to have the exact same snacks at the same time or they scream.
Throw their drinks/snacks/books/drawers/crayons/teddies on the floor and then yell at me until I either pull off the motorway to pick everything back up or turn the stereo up loud enough to drown them out.

I like the fact I can take it to my mum's or IL's so the girls can watch Humf and INTG without pissing everyone off as well!