portable dvd player
My family and I recently moved 1200 miles from home. When I was packing our DVDs for the move, I started imagining our trip in the minivan. I was traveling alone with my four children, all under the age of ten. I reflected on my childhood and our family trips of a mere 200 miles. "He's touching me." "She's breathing on me." I remember them well. I decided then and there that packing all of the DVDs was not happening. Some were staying out of the box, and I was buying a portable DVD player. I have never had such a quiet ride in the car with my four children, as I did that trip South. We piled into our van, headed out, and I let them ride for awhile without the portable DVD player running. They made it a good few hours before the bickering began! I pulled over, set the portable DVD player up between the seats so that they could all see, and we were on the road again. It was a long trip, and we took three days to make it. The portable DVD player had a chord that I could plug into the electrical outlet in my minivan, so we were able to keep it running longer periods of time. It was one of the quietest trips that I have ever taken with my kids! They didn't even fight over not being able to see the screen or someone getting in their way! I did have to stop along the way to purchase one of those cassette tapes that allows your portable DVD player to play its audio through the car speakers. But once that was in, and we'd purchased a season of SpongeBob to go along with it, it was a pleasant ride with my children to our new home in the South.