Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 20, 2012

A friend of mine took five days off from work to be with his kids when they were in town…Yup, all they did was surf and play…..

Is telling them not to out of the question? You know, children don’t bring up themselves. They need parents to tell them what to do and how to behave.

The way people behave is not a law of nature….

If he thinks it’s hard playing electronic games while riding in a car, let him try doing it while driving. LFMF

You won’t have seen this kid in the old Chevy commericals. “See the USA in your Chevrolet.”

Nature beats electronics anyday!!

Kid’s got a point: when you’re a passenger in a car, even the best scenery is quickly transformed into the world’s most boring TV show. That’s why we took our trip to the Canadian Rockies on the motorcycle: you’re not watching the scenery go by inside a frame, on the other side of a piece of glass; you’re in the middle of it. Makes things a lot more real. True, you may get cold and wet, but that’s part of being in reality, isn’t it?

My family rule is that electronic devices are allowed in the car on vacation, but not at any other time.

I agree that Frazz comes off as overly preachy here, and this is one of the things that annoys me about the comic. Notice Frazz doesn’t just say, “Well, don’t do that then.” Rather, he’s basically suggesting that playing a game machine while in a car is a fundamentally flawed idea — the obvious conclusion being he should be watching the scenery and talking with his family instead. But suppose it’s an 8-hour drive… doing that the whole time would drive just about anybody nuts, I think.

Suggesting that approaching a problem in a different way when your usual strategy makes you sick isn’t a matter of excess ego. It’s more like common sense. Maybe the kid should listen to music, take a nap, or something. Reading might have the same result as the game.

All I can say is WOOOOSH!

Actually, it’s the electronics used in the car that keep my mom and I from wanting kill my dad. Picture an 8-hr. car-ride in a minivan, with parents that feel we have to bring ‘everything’, ‘just in case we forget to bring…’. It can already be a pressure-cooker in there. Top that with a man that insists on talking the entire trip, and refusing to believe he’s wrong about ANYTHING. I stopped doing road-trips with anyone long ago. I’m better off by myself. :)

I managed many years ago to learn to read in a moving car without making myself carsick. As a result, now, when we go on long trips (or for that matter, short trips for in-town errands) I read aloud to my family. If that doesn’t work, consider audiobooks.