We just got back last night from a 10-day car trip out East. Just about every summer when I was growing up, we would drive down to the Eastern Shore of Maryland or Delaware or make the several hour drive down to Florida. Back when I was little, there were no Game Boys, Nintendo's, iPads, or iPods to help pass the time in the car. Just for the heck of it, I counted how many "electronics" we brought with us on our most recent trip. We counted 12 and that didn't include the GPS. Yikes!! I couldn't believe that we had that many! On the last couple of trips back East, we drove straight through to Maryland. This time around, we broke up the trip, by stopping around Pittsburgh for a family reunion and then continuing on to Maryland. On the way back, we stopped in Cleveland and then finished the rest of the drive the next day. When we got out of the car last night, Lauren said she felt like kissing the ground. Let's just say, by the time we have made it back home again, we are all ready for a little "space" from each other. We had some interesting hotel and rest stop experiences on this trip, but that's for future blog posts :) How do you and your family pass the time in the car, do you talk? is everyone doing their own thing? I would love to hear how other families pass the time on the "road!"
When Dominic was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2, I went to our local library and took out every book I could find about Autism. Sometimes I would bring back 20 books. This was 2006, so a lot of the information was very "dated." I guess I was looking for a book that would tell me what I should do next, like a "manual." Autism doesn't quite work that way! The saying is, " if you know one person with Autism, you know one person with Autism." Every mom to an individual with Autism follows their own "path." I think as moms, we judge ourselves much harder than anyone else does. I was 41 when I had Dominic. Did he get the diagnosis of Autism because I was an older mom? because I drank a lot of pop? I could sit and think about that every minute of every day. I am pretty integrated into the Autism community around Lansing and have told more than one person that it took me about two weeks to come to terms with Dominic's diagnosis. It is so incredib...
On our most recent road trip (a 3 hour trip to visit my parents) we took turns picking music to listen to, we played "categories" - a game where you pick a category such as "flavors of pie" and everyone takes turns naming something from the category. If you repeat one that someone else said you are out, or if you can't think of other item in the category but someone else can, you are out. We also counted trucks and talked and everyone but the driver slept. Other than use of a phone for music, no electronics were used in the car even though they were available. Color me surprised.
ReplyDeleteI love your ideas and can't wait to test them out the next time we go on a long car ride :)
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