Our road trip didn't look like this. At all.

Maybe don’t do it.

Bring a DVD or two until your kids are in grade school and have required reading.  As I just said to a friend who suggested I write about this–and actually thinks I’d be applauded for braving several trips with two kids and without DVDs (she’s pregnant…)–of all the moms I am good friends with, I am the dimwit.

Let it be known that we didn’t consciously not bring a personal DVD player because we believe in “no t.v. for kids” (quite the contrary, but that’s a post for another time).  We didn’t bring one because we were pressed for time to buy or borrow one.  Also, let it be known that we once brought a DVD player on our first-ever roadtrip with two kids, and it worked really well for keeping the toddler entertained for one of four hours.  But somehow, the charger cord for that device was lost between our house and my in-laws’ house, and so our borrowing expensive things days are at an end.

Here are my  notes on the subject after three consecutive car trips (three weekends in a row) with a two-year-old and a 10-month-old:

Infants don’t need DVDs, but thrive on stimulation from their elder siblings who like to make farting noises and silly faces that involve sticking their chubby little fingers in their noses, mouths, and eyes simultaneously.  This is how all of our trips started out, except for the final leg home from Vermont, which began with two screaming (read: bloody murder screaming) kids, both overtired as we’d missed the “let’s leave at naptime” window, resulting in two kids who slept for three of the five hour ride home. Read the rest of this entry →

• Posted in Parenting
• Tags: cars, DVDs, road trip, summer

Israelis aren't so good at following orders. Especially at falafel stands.

Something miraculous happened this past weekend in Los Angeles. The seas did not part. There was no burning bush. But, a major highway closed down for a 10-mile stretch and the world didn’t end. In fact, nothing happened.

This past weekend, the 405 freeway (a major freeway between Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley that most commuters take to get to work daily) shut down for almost 2 days for construction. For weeks leading up to the massive event, Angelenos were warned. “Carmageddon” was coming and there was no telling what could happen.

As it turns out, Angelenos heeded the warnings and it appeared as if everyone decided to stay home. (We did not, which is how we knew the streets were empty.

It is amazing to see how well everybody followed the rules (except for a few cyclists and joggers who were arrested for racing down the vacant freeway). But my point is that everyone else “followed the rules.” Even My 5-year-old son was aware of the situation and felt that we should stay home to “not make things worse by driving.”

As an Angeleno born to Israeli parents, I am still in awe when people follow directions. If this were to happen in Israel, people would show up on the streets just to prove that they could.  After all, in a country where standing in a line (or crowd, rather) for a falafel is difficult, how would they stay home during “Carmageddon?” I remember attending a music festival in an outdoor amphitheater in Israel as a teenager. I had my ticket in hand with assigned seating along with the thousands of others standing around me shoving to get in.

All I can remember thinking was, why is everyone pushing to get in to an amphitheatre that they have assigned seats?  It is not like the seats were going anywhere. But it was all a matter of principle or “prinseep” as much of my fellow Israelis like to call it.  Lines?  Israelis don’t stand in lines. But there is still a sense of togetherness, because everyone is pushing their way in and eventually the tourists catch on as well after being tired of waiting for the last stale falafel when just moments ago, they were next up to place their order.

So as an Angeleno native with Israeli roots and upbringing, you can imagine how shocked I was that everyone followed the rules.  Angelenos stopped what they were doing to allow the streets to be empty.  And thanks to those who left on vacation, who made it easier for us who were on a staycation.

In a city where people are often too busy worrying about themselves, it felt like a true sense of community, where everyone came together whether for selfish reasons or not (not wanting to deal with the traffic or not wanting to contribute to it). Either way, I am proud of my fellow Angelenos and my son, who insisted that “we should get out of the way, so they could do their job.”  Now if that were only true for my fellow Israelis awaiting their falafel pitas. Read the rest of this entry →

• Posted in Parenting
• Tags: cars, falafel, Israel, Los Ageles