Making Car Rides Work For Your Family

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

20 Feb 2007 08:05 PM

How many hours per week do you spend in your vehicle? Do you often find yourself lamenting about living in your minivan? Do you spend your mornings carpooling kids to school and your afternoons driving one child to soccer, one to ballet, and the other to piano? If you answered yes to any of the aforementioned questions--don't despair---you are far from alone.

In fact, according to a recent SC Johnson survey, 90% of parents say they spend up to 20 hours per week in their car with their children (an average of two kids in the car on a typical day) under 18 years of age. Ninety percent! I'm not sure why I was so blown away by the figure; after all, I spend about 14 hours per week driving my toddler daughter to various activities, including story time at the library, playgroup, park play, etc.

So yes, I am guilty of spending a significant chunk of time on the road. I also feel guilty for complaining that we don't spend more quality time as a family, when it seems (given the survey results) the car may be the perfect place to do just that. Think about it--if we are spending up to 20 hours a week with multiple family members in the car why shouldn't we make the most of that time together? Why shouldn't we think of that time as an opportunity to create a family-friendly atmosphere and strengthen the family bond?

Those are the questions I posed to a good friend of mine shortly after I read the survey results. (We both shuttle our kids to and from various activities throughout the week.) Actually, I asked her to help me come up with ideas of how we could use travel time to enrich the family bond. Here are some of our ideas (Keep in mind I have a 2-year-old and she is a mom to a 3-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son):

· Sing. My daughter loves to sing and my glove compartment is packed with some of her favorite sing-along CDs.

· Pray. It takes my friend 20 minutes to drive from her house to her husband's office. Twenty minutes is all it takes for the entire family to pray the rosary on the way to drop off daddy in the morning.

· Study. I'm not sure I'd consider it actual "studying," but I'll quiz my daughter on her numbers and letters during our car rides. For example, I'll call out a letter, like "T," and we'll take turns coming up with words that begin with said letter like "tree," "turtle," "tomato," etc.

Those are some of our ideas. So how did they compare with those given by the survey participants? When asked how children spend the time in the car, those surveyed answered with the following:

88% of children listen to music while in the car (no word on whether it was exclusively via an iPod)

60% of kids eat in the car

27% eat while they watch in-car DVDs

47% of children pass time in the car by playing games

23% of young passengers talk on the cell phone or text message while on the road

What does your family do in the car?

Related Articles:

On The Road With Children--"Sanity-Savers"

Travel Tip--Avoiding The Fast Food Trap

Dining Behind The Wheel

"Leave Your Car at Home Day"

Survive the Drive: How to Get Your Kids to Behave in the Car

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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