1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

My one buddy up figured out it was cheaper for his wife to quit her job and stay home than it was to try and pay for daycare with both their incomes... having kids is too damn costly

 

Its one of those small one horse towns that I would have hated as a kid, but now as an adult that's exactly where I want to be lol.

We are lucky my wife owns her own businesses so she's able to work from home, but she still has to be able to get work done so we have to have a babysitter come over a couple times a week. If she had to go into an office everyday like me I don't know how we'd do it.

 

That is good fortune for you guys then! Clearly you're better than a lot of 90s parents and the TV babysitter lol

 

I can do 10-11 hours easy with no prep, but +15 hours?

I start hating everyone I see on the road

 

Oh I've tried letting the TV do the babysitting when I've needed a break, but she's not old enough to really be entertained by it yet for more than just a few minutes. Thats the thing with babies and toddlers, they constantly need something new...everything you give them to do or play with is awesome for like 5 minutes and then it's on to 'what's next?'...

Not to mention if you look away for a minute they get themselves into something that could potentially kill them. She already pulled off one of the electrical baby covers once and zapped herself, scared the shit out of us lol. And she eats books like they are food which is a big choking hazard. I could probably fill a dumpster with all the pages of paper I've pulled out of her mouth

 

So happy my girl is a teacher

Every other hour I'm gonna be asking her shit 'what do I do now'

 

Yea I'll hit the 11 hr mark and feel the same way.. a short nap at a rest area usually adjusts my attitude. So I should say its a 16hr drive for me to get to fresno

 

The good thing though is kids are entertained by pretty much anything as long as you are paying attention to them they're happy. I've learned a trick...if my daughter is actually happy playing with something by herself, you do not make eye contact with her at any cost. Because if she sees you make eye contact she remembers you're there and suddenly now you need to be involved again lol.

 

Ryan and I drove non-stop with the exception of a gas fill up every now and then.

'Food' consisted of quick snacking while on the road and every time we stopped.

I remember the first 10 hours being like 'ok..fuck almost done'

But I still had another 6 or so to go after that.

 

Baby solitary

 

THIS ONE is going in the books

 

yeah we have a play pen but that won't muffle the cries or screams when they get bored lol. They are good though if you need to put them down to take a break, bathroom, shower or something and don't want them to climb the bookshelf and jump off

 

Sounds about right! I've perfected the art of peeing while driving so I can shave minutes off my time.


I still can't go faster than 65 but I account for that... technically a drive from my place to downtown fresno should only take 13hr 47min so says Google maps

 

https://youtu.be/HUUjo-gkG2U

 

I thought babies were supposed to "cry it out"? Surely my parents can't be wrong?!

 

I just piss whenever I get fuel.

I've done a lot of driving over the years; 6 hour drives to me became what a 1 hour drive is to others. I had driven every other weekend from base (so-cal) to home (nor-cal) and sometimes back the same day even.

Dad lives in TX so I've done that drive multiple times already.

Then there was IL to CA and back to IL; that drive sucked because there are a lot of state troopers that are quick to pull you over being from out of state.

 

That ones a little tricky, we do utilize that at night, she wakes up and cries and we give her time to soothe herself back to sleep which works maybe half the time. Sometimes though you can only take so much of the crying before you have to intervene just for your own mental health.

But unless a baby is colic, they don't cry for no reason...usually hungry or tired, or teething or growing pains. If we know she's just tired and needs to sleep we'll let her cry it out, but otherwise we try and figure out what she needs.

 

Oof yea those are serious trips. It's weird how a person can become so desensitized to road travel. Little history fact I like sharing; Hitler did highway systems first with the autobahn and had his engineers develop the roads to compliment the German countryside with sweeping curves around hills and shit. AMERICA was like fuck that shit, our interstates will be straight and we'll bend the earth to our will. It wasn't until after they started they realized driving in a straight line for extended periods is hypnotic and put motorists to sleep, causing alot of accidents

 

Huh. I was always taught that growing pains are something you're supposed to cry through, no use complaining. Then again I was the 3rd son so im sure my parents were too tired to be that attentive. Im not complaining about them, they did their best given the circumstances.


You're good parents though.. just don't ever let your children out number you