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Electronic Gadgets: Savior or TroubleMaker

© Dr. Tami Brady

Are we there yet? This phrase seems to be the motto when traveling with kids. It is also the bane of traveling parents. To rid ourselves of the evil phrase, we try snacks, car games, and rest stops.

Modern travel has turned to technology. Today, we can arm ourselves by giving our children game boys and personal cd players. Are these devices actually helpful in distracting children during a long car ride or do they just escalate the frustration of the trip?

Most children, especially those over the age of ten, enjoy video games. At home, these children waste literally hours killing some arch enemy, finding some lost treasure, or trying to beat their last effort. So it makes natural sense that your child would happily play video games in the car.

This is true to some extent. Kids will happily start the trip with game boy and favorite game in hand. So as long as you have rules about keeping the sound levels on these games to a minimum, you will hardly hear a peep from your child for a while.

Unfortunately, however, the usefulness of the game boy lasts as long as your child's patience level. Once the game gets difficult and your child can't beat the bad guy or find the key to the next door, he or she will get bored again. If you are lucky, the game will be quite entertaining, challenging without to many obstacles. It is at this point, however, that the batteries in the game boy will die.

Similar problems occur with personal cd players. Teenagers often spend hours at home listening to music. However, after listening to their favorite cd in the car twice, even the most committed fan becomes annoyed and bored.

I haven't tried onboard dvds. However, I can't imagine my three kids agreeing on one movie for an hour and a half. No doubt, one or another would spend that time pouting and whining that he or she didn't get his or her choice first. Perhaps, dvds would work with younger children. But wouldn't eight hours straight of Barney or Tela-Tubbies wouldn't get annoying?

There are a few things you can do to reduce potential problems. If you have more than one child, be sure that each child has his or her own personal electronic device. This reduces the "it's my turn" and he's taking more time than I did" arguments.