Does your family ever play the cows road-trip game? If you see them on your side of the car, you claim them, and try to estimate/count how many... but if you pass a cemetery you "lose" them and go back to zero. Shawn and I did that once or twice before kids. There's also the alphabet game, the license plate game... twenty questions...
I had some vague hope that my road trip with Kate last weekend would include similar fun -- not with a book on tape, obviously but maybe with a podcast -- Office Ladies, for example. We'd been listening to it after school several months ago, but not in a while. Music would've been be fun, too; typically when she gets in my car these days she plugs in her phone immediately and starts up the Taylor Swift/One Direction playlist. I'm not an official Swiftie, but I have to admit I have my favorites. ;)
Alas, it was not meant to be. And I guess it's my own fault: When the kids were little we fastened the dual-screen DVD player to the backs of our headrests and gave them the book of DVDs. They never learned to look out the window! Curious George, the dreaded Caillou, and Ben 10 were the discs of choice. And The Princess Diaries -- I remember Kate asking for that one Every. Time. (Poor Alex.) We trained her precisely to watch movies on long road trips, and so this past weekend, that is what she did. For 3 hours straight, all the way to Montgomery. With AirPods.
We've graduated to streaming Netflix or Disney+ with our unlimited data plan (I can't say I fully understand what that means because there are times when we still get "you have almost reached your limit" notifications) in the year 2022. I know she watched a few Gilmore Girls episodes, and finished the movie Inside Out. I was left to play my own music, softly and with the Fade/Balance turned all the way to the driver's side so it wouldn't disturb her (!). It was less than satisfying. On the other hand, I was driving, which is a rarity for road trips in my married life, so I had to pay attention.
This weekend we're loading up the Ford again and headed north, to Charlotte NC. I volunteered to drive one of Kate's teammates. She is happy about that. I bet they will not even acknowledge my presence, this being the usual method of teens. I will be the invisible Driver. I'm fine with it, really -- again, the need to concentrate on the road.
Orrrr... I wonder how far I can push to be "Fun Mom" and make it a "Road Trip" before I embarrass her? Should I find Hair Nation and turn up/sing Bon Jovi real loud? Or buy some Twizzlers and hang them out of my mouth?
1 comment:
We always listened to audio books in the car when I was a kid! My parents loved Louis L'Amour mysteries, and Tom Bodette. I think of both so fondly. As an adult, I tend to fall asleep in the car while I listen to audiobooks!!! (My husband drives.) But I have stayed awake for a few good ones, especially A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Now that my kiddo is old enough to love audiobooks, we are always trying to find some that will appeal to her too. We listened to one about A Clock in the Walls recently and... I didn't care for it, but my kid loved it! We may be doing a BIG road trip this summer, so we will need to find some good books to listen to as a family!
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