I gotta run (pick up the kids--ha!) but yeah, kids do need to be entertained on car trips (plane trips too I assume) but mine have been pretty good so far. Portable DVD player wasn't even needed this weekend. We just listened to Cat Stevens and looked at the stars.

Speaking of entertaining, does anyone remember that Steve Martin routine that includes something like 'the individualist's creed'? I promise [I promise], to be unique [to be unique].

My google fu has failed me.

I was forcibly reminded of the routine's irony by this photo [link] where McCain's supporters put the 'ick' in Maverick.

Please forgive the skip to the end if someone else has posted this.

Sometimes parenting seems like a slog but remember, Nature is usually merciful and if you have kids, you're hard-wired to think they're adorable. And they end up doing some pretty hilarious things to entertain YOU, too.

If you play your cards right, they might pick a nicer nursing home to put you in.

Tommy nailed it for me. I know some people who are not only anti-kid for themselves, but pretty much anti-kid (not here). I remind them that their mothers wiped their asses and wiped their noses with love so they need to back off. Parents love their kids (in spite of complaints of their lost "lives") and we keep the world working into the future.

I think it's important to note that admitting the realities about kids requiring effort and sacrifices is not the same as calling for a referendum on the idea of parenthood.

The kids are great, I have absolutely no regrets even when they spend a car trip bickering and yelling.

I've been elbow-deep in a toilet once or twice that made me reconsider for a few seconds. But not enough to drive to Nebraska.

admitting the realities about kids requiring effort and sacrifices

I hear this so often, I wonder about our definition of 'sacrifice'. Giving up things we expected to keep? Not having things that we want?

This is genuinely confusing to me because I've seen so many parents who integrate their children's needs into their own and everyone gets what they need. Rather than losing something by having kids, they seem only to see parenting as gaining something in their lives.

Reminds me of a woman who walked across the country with me in '86. She strapped her 6 month old to her back and kept on trucking. That kid? The coolest, most grounded child I ever met.

I'm trying to figure out how long plane trips qualify as relaxing even if you don't have kids. Unless that's the point: "You think air travel drains your will to live now? If you have kids you'll look back on those times wistfully."

My first time on an airplane was when we moved cross-country when I was almost 7, but we'd had a good amount of experience with long car trips by then, so I think my brother and I were somewhat trained by then.

Sometimes I think that kids just aren't worth the trouble. Then I realize that if everyone were like me, the human race would have died out way back in caveperson days....

On the flip side, thank god some people do think/feel like you, because there are too many damn people in the world.

I see people on flights managing kids just fine. And I traveled a lot with my parents, who basically did their thing...And we also did plenty of long car trips at all ages. I'm not saying its always like that, I just feel sorry for people that think that's impossible.

Really depends on the kid, as has been said. mac at 7 is not reading to himself, and even when watching a movie or playing a video game will interrupt me to look at things or watch with him, or make a comment, or just verify that I know he is still there.

and the portable DVD brings up another point - you are bringing stuff for your child. I travel with a lot less to entertain myself than I used to because I am also carrying some stuff for mac and need an extra hand if possible - security is a bit of a mess with us.

Fear of sounding like mac is a chore and getting eyerolls and sighs of annoyance is something that limits who I vent to. But truth is, a lot of the time parenting is a chore.

Those of us who remember being self-sufficient on trips probably were, but we're not gonna remember how we were at 20 months or 4 years old when we needed the most attention. There's a big difference between under-fives and older kids.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I remember reading for hours in the back seat of the car, but I've heard the stories about the years I cried for those hours. (10 hour drive at least once a year.)

Speaking of entertaining, does anyone remember that Steve Martin routine that includes something like 'the individualist's creed'? I promise [I promise], to be unique [to be unique].

Yep. That was off the A Wild & Crazy Guy album. My brother and I loved Steve (and that album) in the '70s.