Do you allow your kids to read in the car?

[Anonymous]

I never could as a kid because I would get terrible headaches - they eye strain is definitely worse for some of us. My kids have tried reading in the car but they get motion sickness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This can't be real, can it? You'd prevent your kid from reading in the car so he can be "more present?" I hope you don't let him look out the windows, there are words everywhere out there.

Yes, it’s real. I just took him to lunch and he was trying to eat a sandwich and read a book in his lap. I asked him to put the book away so we could enjoy lunch and chat. You don’t think being present is an important skill for kids to practice?

I'm the PP. You specifically asked about in the car. Were you in the car eating lunch?

Being present is an important skill. However I don't think car lunch is a make-or-break situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This can't be real, can it? You'd prevent your kid from reading in the car so he can be "more present?" I hope you don't let him look out the windows, there are words everywhere out there.

Yes, it’s real. I just took him to lunch and he was trying to eat a sandwich and read a book in his lap. I asked him to put the book away so we could enjoy lunch and chat. You don’t think being present is an important skill for kids to practice?

Table etiquette is different from that of riding in a car with your parent. While you should be “present” and pay attention to your dining companions, it is with the assumption that they will be equally focused on you. I would hope that when you are in the car, as the driver, your primary focus would be on the road, not on entertaining your passengers. While I would chat and otherwise interact with my kids when I drove them, they understood that it was only with whatever mental resources could be spared from driving, and that for safety’s sake, I might at any time have to tune them out and devote my full attention to the road and whatever the other drivers were doing. Requiring them to be “present” for my benefit when I was unable to reciprocate would be an unreasonable expectation.

[Anonymous]

If you don't experience immediate side effects from reading in the car, it's safe to do so.

However, it is believed that outdoor time and lots of looking in the far distance help (at a population/medical study level) to maintain normal vision.

Lots of reading doesn't damage eyes but lack of other types of looking changes how eyes develop.

Eye strain is more of a temporary or healable problem.

[Anonymous]

This is what I did for hours on end for every long car ride as a kid. It's a gift. Agree with PPs that I don't see how it's bad for your eyes in daylight.

My kids do this pretty often. The younger one can't read but will look at a book and often they will talk about the pictures, facts the older one finds interesting, etc.

Being "present" all the time on car rides sounds so controlling. Of course if you are trying to talk about something specific you can ask them to put the book away. Do you need your kid to be "present" for long flights as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This can't be real, can it? You'd prevent your kid from reading in the car so he can be "more present?" I hope you don't let him look out the windows, there are words everywhere out there.

Yes, it’s real. I just took him to lunch and he was trying to eat a sandwich and read a book in his lap. I asked him to put the book away so we could enjoy lunch and chat. You don’t think being present is an important skill for kids to practice?

Thats completely different topic. Your kid is hyperlexic and likely using reading for escapism. The need to bring a book everywhere is also a crutch to signal that he doesnt want to interact socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This can't be real, can it? You'd prevent your kid from reading in the car so he can be "more present?" I hope you don't let him look out the windows, there are words everywhere out there.

Yes, it’s real. I just took him to lunch and he was trying to eat a sandwich and read a book in his lap. I asked him to put the book away so we could enjoy lunch and chat. You don’t think being present is an important skill for kids to practice?

Thats completely different topic. Your kid is hyperlexic and likely using reading for escapism. The need to bring a book everywhere is also a crutch to signal that he doesnt want to interact socially.

I looked up hyperlexic and that doesn’t sound like him. He didn’t get into reading until maybe 1st grade and was not an early reader.

[Anonymous]

Many people think doing things in low light is bad for your eyes.

I think I was an adult when I learned that's incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many people think doing things in low light is bad for your eyes.

I think I was an adult when I learned that's incorrect.

My mom didn't let me read in the car because of the movement and bumping around, not because of low light.

[Anonymous]

I would never let my kid reading in car. Try to listen to a book maybe?

[Anonymous]

Y'all are bizarre.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course. Why would it be any worse for your eyes than reading anywhere else? As long as you have enough light it's fine.

My kid knows that if she reads too much and starts to feel motion sick, she should stop reading. A lesson every avid reader has to learn at some point. But that's when audio books come in handy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This can't be real, can it? You'd prevent your kid from reading in the car so he can be "more present?" I hope you don't let him look out the windows, there are words everywhere out there.

Yes, it’s real. I just took him to lunch and he was trying to eat a sandwich and read a book in his lap. I asked him to put the book away so we could enjoy lunch and chat. You don’t think being present is an important skill for kids to practice?

Thats completely different topic. Your kid is hyperlexic and likely using reading for escapism. The need to bring a book everywhere is also a crutch to signal that he doesnt want to interact socially.

Stop making things up. Hyperlexia isn't just a kid who loves reading, it also refers to verbal and social deficits. If there are no deficits, there is no reason to pathologize the reading.

Some people are just very bookish. It's okay to have limits on it -- we don't let our kid eat at the dinner table or during certain family functions. But during a drive? Sitting in the back of a car while your parent runs errands is boring. It's the perfect place for a book, assuming it doesn't make you motion sick.

[Anonymous]

^ should say we don't let our kid READ at the dinner table or during certain family functions. We of course let her eat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This can't be real, can it? You'd prevent your kid from reading in the car so he can be "more present?" I hope you don't let him look out the windows, there are words everywhere out there.

Yes, it’s real. I just took him to lunch and he was trying to eat a sandwich and read a book in his lap. I asked him to put the book away so we could enjoy lunch and chat. You don’t think being present is an important skill for kids to practice?

Thats completely different topic. Your kid is hyperlexic and likely using reading for escapism. The need to bring a book everywhere is also a crutch to signal that he doesnt want to interact socially.

My kid who reads the most is the most social. Studies actually show that novels help with empathy and social skills, so scientists agree that you’re wrong.