Sunday, June 19, 2011

We have joined the dark side

That's right, this weekend we invested in a personal DVD player. I am flying solo with Cameron up to Massachusetts in a few weeks and now that she finally likes TV we can use it on the plane flight. Plus we have a 4 hour drive up to Maine after we spend a few days with my in-laws so it will come in handy in the car too.

Cameron already loves it! She requested to watch TV on it today but I don't want to encourage that. We picked up Toy Story, a Backyardigans and a Thomas video. Target was having a great sale and we even got the unit for less than seen in this link. It's so intuitive to use that Cameron has already figured out how to pause it and then resume the video.

We also picked her up some ear phones but I have a feeling she will be a lot more resistant to those. I'm already a happy parent with this DVD player and a bonus will be if it lets me read a few pages on my Kindle while we are on the plane.

For parents that have had the portable DVD players is there anything I should be concerned about? Aside from spilling drinks on the unit, of course! At what age were your kids OK with using headphones?

4 comments:

Amanda said...

The headphones will probably not work, Holden refuses to use them. But you could practice with her at home and see if she is resistent. Either way, you can just play the movies at a lower volume on the plane and I'm sure no one will say anything. Only other advise I have is to make sure its fully charged and be prepared for a meltdown when you have to turn it off for landing, just have a new plan to entertain once you have to turn it off. Lastly, Holden had to be taught not to touch the screen, toddlers get them dirty pretty quickly. Enjoy, it was the best thing we bought for travel

Drew said...

Joel Andrew LOVES his headphones! I posted a photo of it a few weeks ago... He watches Mickey on his iPod and has the headphones on. When he is sitting this is no problem. It is when he gets up to walk around. He loves it so much that I actually thought we should be going on a plane trip since it will be so much easier. Joel Husband and I both have cars with tvs in them, I am very strict about only a movie when we are on a long ride not during nap time, like going to Sebago or Sunday River. My husband is terrible and pretty much leaves the movie on whenever which is a big sore point for us. He needs to stop that. Otherwise the movie works pretty well. Actually, I take that back, I put the movie on when I am breastfeeding James in the front seat in a parking lot too... so Joel Andrew has something to do besides whine while waiting! He loves Kung Fu Panda, Finding Nemo and really liked the Lion King. We also get a lot of movies off ITunes - like the Mickey episodes though if I hear the Donald of the Desert song one more time... He does not really like Cars, which is funny since he has a lightning McQueen... Good luck! I think TV is an important thing. Believe it or not. My kid is constant, constantly running, going, doing, being. Can't sit still. I think it is good that he gets 1/2 hour of Mickey, or a movie here or there to at least keep him sitting still. Think about it, all of us would like some form of entertainment while on the plane, why should we deprive our kids of that? Do we want to color for two hours, no! So, do you think they would too? I am all for it!

Stephanie said...

You'll have to let me know how it works for her. We have a very long drive coming up in August and I've been considering one for Jesse. He will have to use headphones, though. I don't think I can take 8 hours of Dora.

LauraC said...

Our rule was/is - you only get to watch with volume if you use the headphones. Setting that rule upfront has been AWESOME. They can still see the screen without headphone but they quickly came around when they realized they could only hear if they used the headphones.

We have a car DVD player we use for long trips and NEVER have to hear it. Also do not have to bother people on the plane with the movie.

We got toddler headphones from ifrogz.com but they sell them at Target now.