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Russic · 07-20-2012, 10:48 AM

I'm generally in the "just let them go nuts till they calm themselves down" camp, but if your friend is going through a tough time and the kid doesn't travel well, perhaps a trip won't be all that relaxing for her.

Personally I haven't talked with a parent of a 5 year old with that problem yet, but I don't know a ton of them, so maybe it's more common than I'm aware. My guess is that's a little rare. While it's tempting to blame her parenting style and encourage her to push the kid, let's not forget that a divorce can be brutal on a 5 year old and having him act out in unpredictable ways probably isn't all that uncommon.

My kids are 3 months and 2.5 years. We take a yearly trip to the Okanagan (twitter followers might be familiar with me blowing it way out of proportion). Generally an 8 hour drive takes about 10 with all the stops. It was pretty bad when the eldest was 3 months, turbo annoying when he was 1 (just wanted to crawl around), but it got significantly easier after 2 because he liked movies/tv and could watch an iPad for long sections of the trip.

I try not to judge other parents as all kids are different. Good for you for thinking of something nice to do for your friend though. Perhaps ask her if there's a reasonable alternative that she might like... perhaps another friend watches the kid while you guys go do something she doesn't normally do in the city?

07-20-2012, 10:48 AM	#7
Russic Dances with Wolves Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Section 304 Exp:	I'm generally in the "just let them go nuts till they calm themselves down" camp, but if your friend is going through a tough time and the kid doesn't travel well, perhaps a trip won't be all that relaxing for her. Personally I haven't talked with a parent of a 5 year old with that problem yet, but I don't know a ton of them, so maybe it's more common than I'm aware. My guess is that's a little rare. While it's tempting to blame her parenting style and encourage her to push the kid, let's not forget that a divorce can be brutal on a 5 year old and having him act out in unpredictable ways probably isn't all that uncommon. My kids are 3 months and 2.5 years. We take a yearly trip to the Okanagan (twitter followers might be familiar with me blowing it way out of proportion). Generally an 8 hour drive takes about 10 with all the stops. It was pretty bad when the eldest was 3 months, turbo annoying when he was 1 (just wanted to crawl around), but it got significantly easier after 2 because he liked movies/tv and could watch an iPad for long sections of the trip. I try not to judge other parents as all kids are different. Good for you for thinking of something nice to do for your friend though. Perhaps ask her if there's a reasonable alternative that she might like... perhaps another friend watches the kid while you guys go do something she doesn't normally do in the city? Last edited by Russic; 07-20-2012 at 10:54 AM.