Car journeys with a cantankerous toddler can be painful to say the least. Ours usually begin with the best intentions, pointing out the big windmills along the bypass and chatting about the trees, and end with the sort of whining that makes you want to drive into those trees. The only way to stop the whining is to sing Incy Wincy Spider ad infinitum with a little bit of Heads, Shoulders Knees and Toes thrown in. This whining for 20 minutes, it does bad things to your mood for the rest of the day.
So when I saw a photo of some ingeniuous contraption that straps your iPad to your car seat on Charlotte‘s Instagram feed… woah. Mind blown. A quick search on Amazon and it was ordered.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have found our own in-car Nirvana:
I got over my initial 30 seconds of mothering guilt by recalling the Winnie the Pooh story tapes my mum used to play my brother and I over and over again in the car when we were kids: this is like old-school story tapes with images, right? And once you get a taste of the blissful silence that allows you to concentrate on the road rather than the recall of nursery rhymes, everything will make sense.
iTALK online iPad case with in-car headrest mount, £14.95, Amazon.
I could have written this same post! One word of warning though…Mickey Mouse Clubhouse dared to finish in the middle of a long(ish) journey and we had tears all the way afterwards. Yes, we did have 10 more episodes, but the mere 2 seconds it took to start a new one brought on the biggest crisis! #TerribleTwo
We did have a mini meltdown today in the 10 second gap between Peppa Pig episodes! I dread the day the iPad battery runs out in the middle of one. Yikes.
PS: it works a treat on the bed headrest too when you want lazy sunday morning in bed…tried and tested x
Brilliant, I need one, attaching it to the bed head is an inspired idea! Just think of all the places the iPad can now go, also thinking of next plane journey! x
Oooh plane headrest, that’s a good one! The possibilities are endless…
Looks like a brilliant idea my little one would love this in the car. It would also save my sanity from the constant rhyming over and over on long car journeys.
Seriously, there are only so many nursery rhymes you can sing before you drive yourself nuts aren’t there!!
I hear you! Lily got an in car dvd player for Christmas from the grandparents and after my initial disgust it’s become our absolute saviour on journeys of longer than twenty minutes. Be warned though, Balamory on repeat makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I’m currently considering headphones!!
Ohhh god I don’t know what it is about Balamory, Elfie loves it too! Luckily they didn’t sell it on iTunes so Peppa it was. We have 3 episodes of it recorded on our Sky+ and she can watch it over and over. Bloody miss Hooley and the coloured houses.
If only I had an Ipad to put on in my car…but I do love the word cantankerous! X
Cantankerous: I’m bringing it back!!
My iPad was a Christmas gift last year, but since Elfie has become old enough to learn how to use it I spend less and less time on it. The way she can use it at 21 months is amazing!
My husband, being in the visual effects/animation business, has banned all cbeebies (apart from In the Night Garden at bedtime ‘because all children need a really trippy, weird-ass show in their childhood’ apparently), in favour of the Pixar suite of films which we whip out on ‘special occasions’ (read: long journeys). I highly recommend as I love all of them myself. We had Roald Dahl on tape on journeys up north when we were kids – it’s totally the same thing.
I wish Elfie would get into Pixar/Disney, I’m really looking forward to watching them with her but she’s just not interested at the moment. I tried to sit down with her recently to watch Up but ended up weeping so hard I had to turn it off.
This look like a brilliant idea. I keep trying to patent a taxi type glass screen betwen mum and kids in the car allowing for total silence while driving but the naysayers say no go…risk of suffocation and all that! I say have a light that comes on if they are choking but otherwise what a great idea eh
I would love one of these! You’re a genius.
WOW this looks brilliant, am off to investigate!!
xx
Total genius – am going to show this to Richmond Daddy, he’ll love it!