How many of you remember this?
Back in my day, that’s all we had for entertainment when we were in the car! No batteries, no screens, nothing! And also no peace and quiet for the adults.
That last part we’re not supposed to admit, right? Taking car trips should be full of family bonding, singing “100 bottles of milk on the wall” and sharing our inner-most secrets. Just like the Brady Bunch.
However, just as most of us don’t have astroturf lawns, most of us don’t have such picturesque travel, either. At least, we don’t! In fact, I think my kids might fight in the car more than anywhere else. The other day I told Andy I was going to make us rich by inventing an impenetrable screen to go between two car seats. Doesn’t that sound like a great idea?
Until I do that, though, I am not ashamed to admit that I love having a DVD player in our van. As you may remember, we just entered the realm of minivan driving a few months ago when we bought our Toyota Sienna – and we are loving it. Don’t worry, we haven’t completely given up on the idea of communicating with each other in the car – like I said, we have plenty of time for our kids to fight – but when we’re on a trip for an hour or more, we happily put in a movie.
Of course, even though our van is a 2011 model, I was just perusing the Toyota website and now I am totes jealous of the brand new Siennas. Check this out:
From Toyota.com:
This dual headrest Rear Seat Entertainment System lets your rear passengers watch movies, play video games and even listen to music… Each monitor can operate independently to allow for separate video or video game use and includes a pair of infrared wireless headphones with two user selectable channels (A and B) that offer superior stereo sound quality. Both monitors also feature RCA A/V jacks for connecting external inputs such as video game systems or digital cameras.
Did you catch that? Each screen operates independently. Each kid gets to watch their own movie. Can you imagine? I die.
These tricked-out vans are not just fun and games for the children – they also indulge the techie adult. I hadn’t seen this before, but Toyota’s now have entune.
Entune is a collection of popular mobile applications and data services that are now accessible right from inside your Toyota. Now you can stay connected, no matter where you are.
Apps for your car. That is quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen.
Now, Andy and I have recently purchased two new (to us) vehicles – and given our track record, that means the next one we buy will be in 2022 (is it just me, or does that look like a fake date? I did that right, didn’t I? 2012 + 10 = 2022? Anyway.) So we will need to live vicariously through others to experience this. But I would LOVE to check it out.
So I have two questions for you – have any of you seen entune in person? Generally, what are your family’s rules on in-car entertainment?
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Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota.
aww man, I LOVED Interstate Bingo and the license plate game, of course. We don’t have built in dvd players in either car, but have a portable dvd player we take on long trips. My kids have to be old fashioned and read books or color otherwise. 😉
We counted cows and then had to bury them when we passed a cemetery. We played the ABC game, the Q was hard to find unless we saw Quaker State or and Antique shop. But, most of our entertainment consisted of your Aunt Zola hurling from the car window at 60 MPH. She was the carsickness queen!
UP
I have not seen the entune, but it sounds wonderful! Also, when we got our van with the DVD player in it, I was all , “we won’t turn on the DVD player unless our trip is one hour or longer.” Now, whenever the kids start to argue, I flip that baby on and it’s sweet peace for momma again. Hey, whatever it takes, right?!
We took a 10-hour car trip this weekend (and 10 hours back, of course, 2 days later), so we broke out the portable DVD player in full force. Toy Story and Nemo MAY have been watched multiple times. I was feeling a little guilty that we were having really no family interaction and no creative games on the trip, but the DVDs were keeping them happy and quiet. But we only get the DVD player out for vacations.
Oh my word. 20 hours in a weekend!?? What else are you supposed to do!? Glad you survived!
We only let them watch it on a big trip, 2 hours plus, but without it, we’d go nuts, especially with Jonah. The big kids can play their hand-held games or read books, but he can’t be otherwise entertained at this point!
We go to lake Erie almost every weekend in the summer. So 3 hours there on Friday and 3 hours back on Monday. The DVD player is a must!! And unfortunately it’s on most of the time around town too. Although mason still talks the entire time when it’s just him & I.