Jersey City NJ is the top place in NJ to raise a kid? Thats silly.
…oh its strictly cities. So decidely not the best place to raise your kids, the best city… then Jersey City makes more sense.
We just went ahead and had four kids. That way we take up an entire row.
Of course as a result we dont fly as much as if we only had two…
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used to drive (three kids) NY to FL, NY to GA - Not sure we ever flew with all of them as children.
Found a 9" TV/VCR that had an auto jack. Put a milk crate between the captain seats of the minivan and played movies for the kids. The more sophisticated and built in stuff didn’t exist yet
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While we had 4 kids, we never flew with all of them. We did, however, drive with all of them on several long road trips.
We bought a 2-disk DVD player with 4 screens. We could set it up so that 2 could watch Disk 1, 2 could watch Disk 2, or all 4 could watch either Disk 1 or 2. Often The Wiggles or Little Mermaid or Cars or Barbie: Mariposa etc. Then wife would watch her own personal DVD player, The Office or Friends, while I drove.
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I’m taking up a whole row with my kids on a flight this summer, but only have 3 of them (the plane is a 2 and 2).
How far would you drive? Weve capped out atabout 7.5 hours but my wife has fond memories of driving from NJ to Orlando. I think that would be a bit much for me.
Our one kid just reads and sleeps so she doesn’t actually affect our travel. I on the other hand will start whining from 2-8 hours into the trip depending on my mood, traffic, and what we’re listening to.
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I am talking 1993, didn’t think they had the back of seat screens yet.
Also, I got it at a Time Share presentation, so wasn’t comparison shopping options
Max 12 hours in a day. I didn’t want to wake the kids early and I liked to be settled somewhere around dinner time. So 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Going down would leave after work, drive 4 hours or so, then a full day, then destination late afternoon
Coming home, usually two full days
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I’ve done a 14hr haul with a 2yr old nephew before, but this would have been a 31hr drive. Definitely flying.
Five people, school holiday, rent a car at destination, we couldn’t afford to fly back then
I guess I’m brutal. I’ve done about 15-16 hours with the kids. We make stops as needed. And we leave way early in the morning so they sleep for quite a bit of the trip. Never had a problem. Everyone’s sore and tired upon arrival, but no problems.
I’ve done SW Ontario-> new brunswick before and SW Ontario-top of florida with the kids.
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Holy crap that’s at the edge of nowhere.
my daughter spent 9 months working in a ranger station in the Stanislaus National Forest, in CA
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I also found out that it’s like the biggest oil reserve in North America. But he wouldn’t be working directly in oil and gas, he’s hopefully getting hired by the company that handles the water treatment systems that supply all the camps up there.
I did some googling, the place he’s at is restricted to o&g workers. you can’t just show up, rent a room, and spend a couple of days fishing (which would be something I’d consider). So, can’t go fishing with him up there if he gets the job. Maybe once he gets established I’ll fly up to anchorage and meet him there for some fishing.
Ah, the parent across the aisle was basically on back up to rotate out the other parent. We have boys, so having a parent at the aisle corralling them in the middle and window seat seemed to work best. I certainly didn’t want to deal with them sitting next to another passenger or repeatedly asking an aisle passenger to let us out.
Sitting at the rear of the plane is a good call. It’s nice for bathroom access (hope your 2-year-old isn’t potty training, although changing diapers in a plane bathroom is no fun, either), as well as generalized leg stretching. However, when our older kid was just shy of 2, he lunged for the door at the back of the plane, saying, “All done airplane.”
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We’ve done multiple road trips from approx Seattle to Chicago, driving straight through, with times ranging from 31-36 hours. The worst was in the winter with a 2-year-old dog and a 1.5-year-old kid. Surprisingly, the toddler didn’t completely fall apart until the last 300-ish miles each way, wanting to turn around and go back. There were only two different DVDs he would watch, and he was too little to wear headphones, so we listened to The Best of Elmo (about 30 min) and the Elmo version of Peter and the Wolf (about 60 min) over and over and over. Oh, and the trip when my carsick son threw up in the first 100 miles wasn’t great, either. Or the one during a heatwave when the AC crapped out. Or, you know, basically all of them.
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Graduation was fun. I got to hand her the diploma (among others in her class). Was awesome to be part of it
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The saga of my son’s failure to launch seems pretty much complete. He flew to Alaska at the start of the week. Yesterday, he received and accepted a job offer. 3 weeks in, 3 weeks out. And he LOVES alaska since he’s a huge outdoorsman. And, roughly six figures CDN, pretty good for his first FT job.
They gave him benefits, like health and dental and 401K. I’ve no idea how that’s supposed to work. Maybe if he gets prescribed drugs for something he’ll have to pick them up in anchorage on the way in or out. Considering he’s living half the time in Canada and half in Alaska, I’ve no idea.
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