When it comes to family travel, whether you are flying to Grandma’s house or your fancy pants vacation resort, you gotta have a foolproof method to keep your kids occupied for the entire trip. It’s either that or knock them out with drugs.
What happens when your kids aren’t occupied (or drugged)?
Meltdowns, discomfort, boredom, hunger, unnecessary requests to go to the bathroom, “are we there yet?” and “how much loooooooonger?” inquiries, moaning and groaning, infighting between siblings, back of the seat kicking, etc. etc. etc.
It can get BAD. If you’re on a plane, you can’t even pull over to give yourself a break. Not to mention— EVERYONE IS WATCHING.
Well, as the mom of a five-year-old, I am here to tell you that once your kids reach a certain age, all these problems miraculously disappear. They even carry their own luggage.
I know it’s not popular to tell a story about when everything works out JUST FINE, with no tension to hold anyone’s interest or heartfelt pleas to gain sympathy, but we traveled to Utah on Tuesday with Mazzy and it couldn’t have gone any smoother.
Can’t you just pee in your pants or scream “I’m bored!!!!” loud enough for the people on the ground to hear you so I have something to write about?
But no. Mazzy was excited to go on the plane. She was more excited about flying then the vacation itself. She was glued to the window before take-off, clapped when the plane reached the clouds, told me when she had to go to the bathroom, got excited about the free snacks and played quietly on her iPad for the entire trip.
(FYI- we left Harlow at home with Grammy, no matter what @insta2yearold tells you.)
Of course, I can’t let Mazzy take all the credit. I was FULLY PREPARED. Before the trip, I loaded up the iPad with new games and movies, made sure it was fully charged, took along a pair of headphones and packed my myCharge Hub 6000 just in case anybody ran out of battery.
The myCharge Hub is key, by the way, because if you are grounded before the flight even takes off, knowing you have a back-up charger is one less reason to panic. Plus, if you are traveling with multiple devices— like Mazzy’s iPad, my phone, Mike’s iPad, Mike’s phone, etc. you need a substantial back-up source. I’ve actually become quite attached to my Hub and won’t travel without it. I took it to San Francisco a few weeks ago, left it in the car from the airport by accident and did everything possible to get a new one before our Utah trip. I love the Hub because it attaches directly to your device (or an outlet) with no wires necessary. It also actually charges your phone (and then you can remove it) as opposed to acting as another battery source you must leave attached.
So there I was, on the plane, with Mazzy happy and occupied and I realized— I get to do whatever I want to do too! Read books, flip through US Weekly, take a nap, create a business plan, watch the inflight movie, linger over coffee— THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER when your kid is belted in and totally entertained with a fully charged device!
AND— there is no guilt or shame in unlimited iPad time when you are in the air. I bet you even have people tell you what a wonderful mother you are once the plane lands.
“I didn’t hear a peep from her— she was so content the whole time! You must be a wonderful parent!”
SOAK THAT PRAISE UP.
When we landed, the iPads were still charged but my phone was in the red. That’s what playing with photo editing apps for 4 hours can do to you. I attached my Hub and was able to use my phone for the :45 minute car ride to the hotel. We even face-timed with Harlow. (Don’t feel bad for Harlow. She is stoked to get one-on-one time with Grammy.) When we got to the hotel, we put our stuff down and immediately went out to dinner. By that time, my phone was fully charged without ever locating an outlet in the hotel room.
Do you want to be the expert travel mom who gets compliments on her parenting skills on the plane?
If so, it’s your lucky day because I am giving away 5 myCharge Hubs!
One grand prize winner will get a myCharge Hub 6000 + an $100 Visa gift card and four runner-ups will receive a myCharge Hub 6000 + a $50 gift card.
Giveaway rules:
1) You must be subscribed to the myCharge newsletter to enter. If you are not already subscribed, you can do so here.
2) Then leave a comment below telling me about the time you or your kid ran out of battery power when you most needed it.
MyCharge is “the ultimate in portable power solutions” and has many options for traveling moms who wouldn’t mind taking a nap themselves when they board a plane. The myCharge Hub 6000 gets up to 27 additional hours of talk time, as well as integrated, quick-charge wall prongs, built-in cables and connectors for smartphones, tablets, e-readers or whatever device your little rugrat is toting around on your trip.
Winner will be announced on April 10th. If you have any travel booked that requires a myCharge RIGHT NOW, you can buy one here.
Good luck and happy traveling!
WINNERS UPDATE:
And the Grand Prize winner is… Shannon who couldn’t get in touch with her teammates when her ran out during a Breast Cancer walk.
The four runner-ups are… Evan who depends on the PBS app on long car rides with her son, Suzi who needs a fully charged iPad to keep her kids entertained in the waiting room of her son’s therapy, Meredith Kennedy who depends on her phone to keep her company while pumping at work and Chelsea who ran out of an iPad battery on a very unfortunate library visit with her 20 month-old son.
Congrats all! Please contact abby@mommyshorts.com to claim your prizes.
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This post was sponsored by myCharge, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
My daughter was watching Frozen on the ipad while we were flying and ran out of battery power right before the end. She cried for 10 mins until we landed
Took my 5 yo to an event at the LIBRARY. I was trying to keep the 20 month old entertained with my phone…. phone dies. library + unhappy toddler = everyone stares
My phone died during a Target shopping trip and I couldn’t check all my purchases for Cartwheel deals or even use my Cartwheel at checkout. #FWP
6 hours in a car, the books and non-electronic toys accidentally packed in the back, and my daughter absolutely needed to watch the same 3-minute video over and over. The iPad ran out of battery. I could have given her my phone–but then how would I have distracted myself from “Pizza Angel”?
I don’t usually let my daughter play on my ipad, but that will change this summer. We are flying to CA with my almost two year old, so I will be loading it up with movies and games to keep her busy in flight.
We flew last summer, and I was not prepared at all. The flight was at nap time, so I figured she would sleep. She knocked out as people were boarding, but woke up when we reached cruising altitude and was awake for the rest of the trip. The ipad would have been a lifesaver when she started to get fussy with a couple hours left to go.
The time we flew to Poland with a 4 year old and a 1 year old and the DVD player ran out of halfway through the 8 hour flight. A tantrum ensued and we spent half an hour trying to calm the 4 year old AND keep him from waking up his baby sister!
I try to take my two girls on a road trip every summer while my husband is having his busy season for work. Last year I was freaking out because we kept running out of battery for their phone that had the white noise app on it. No white noise meant NOT a chance that my kiddos would be sleeping in a strange bed through the night.
My kid has done 100 flights in 5 years as we live across the ocean from both sets of grandparents. I am well familiar with the feeling of impending doom as the battery turns red mid-way across the Atlantic ocean on a day-time, nap-free flight. I totally agree with you- once your kid hits iPad immersion age, it’s so amazing to actually have time to read or even watch a movie (with pauses, of course)!
Every time my sons ipad dies while I’m trying to housework! It’s a tragedy!
I was actually traveling alone of all things. I did the online check-in and had my boarding pass on my phone. The flight was delayed, and delayed, and delayed again. Thank goodness for the Samsung power-save feature. I was at least able to board, but the phone was in the red when I did so. Super close call!
Omg – picture it is you will! My daughter and I on a plane to Florida for her first trip to see her father in 2 years. First “visitation” – stress and nerves and QUESTIONS ABOUT “Daddy?” All afternoon. And then the flight is delayed once we are on board and taxied away from the gate! Please don’t cry, baby, mommy will figure out how to make the iPad work so you can watch Paw Patrol, AGAIN! –Yeah, not so much – lots of tears and blocking kicking toddler feet from the chair in front of me!
Everything was going fine on our 15 hour car drive to Austin, Texas until my kids’ tablets died and my phone was in red during the last hour of driving. The peace and quiet had managed with the help of a portable dvd player up until this point. With only one car charger, I had to make a difficult choice, let my phone die and loss my husband who was driving in front of us so my kids could continue watching their Paw Patrol dvd or unplug it to charge my phone so I could keep in contact with my husband. Difficult choice and a very loud last hour of driving.
This past Monday! I went in for what I thought was a routine prenatal ultrasound and got hustled to L&D for further monitoring. Not a huge problem — except my daughter had an emergency dentist appointment due to a fall over the weekend that I had begged and pleaded for in just a short time. With updating my husband on baby’s status and trying to coordinate with my MIL to get biggest to the dentist I was rapidly losing battery power. I have an in car charger — but it wasn’t doing me any good laying in bed strapped to machines! This would have been a lifesaver.
Hmm, this is a tough one. The kids have run out of battery on our car trips to the beach several times, which always makes the remaining time in the car less than enjoyable. With a 5 year old and a 4 year old that like to bother each other, iPads are a must for car trips.
We’re taking our first plane ride to Disney this fall/winter so this would make things MUCH easier!!
We came real close to losing batter on the iPad on our last flight. It actually had 2% left when it was time to turn off all electronics! Phew!!
My girls were playing games on the ipad at a recent doctor’s visit. The ipad ran out of battery and both girls cried/whined the rest of the visit. So much for trying to tackle my stuff while on the clock 🙂
I usually am willing to accept the iPad dying as an excuse to halt play time on it (she doesn’t seem to throw a fit when it’s the iPads fault)! This device sounds great though, and I am taking this as a chance to become proactive! It will be great to have a backup plan for road trips and flights!!
We were at the end of our 6 hour drive to grandmas house. It had been a good drive so far. But with 30 minutes left and no stopping places, the iPad died. It was followed by “I’m board” for the rest of the drive. Not even singing with mommy would stop it.
Constantly running out of battery on my phone. Before my son was born I would be that girl in the bar asking the bartender to plug my phone in. It seems like devices aren’t getting better on battery life and I’m not getting any better about rationing out my time to save battery either.
I have had 4 kids in the back of a 1200 mile mini-van ride fighting over 2 charging cables and one charging port. When we would stop for breaks and meals, these sweet children would turn into these creatures from Mad Max roving for power as if it were the last drops of oil on the earth.
When they got a sip of the precious power, they quickly learned that a 15 minute charge meant about 5 minutes of use on their tablets. It turned into a big sighing party, so much so the windows started fogging up.
We have a 3 year old and 9 year old that we will be taking to Hawaii in October. That’s a 6 hour drive to Cali, then a 6 hour flight to Hawaii. This would be FANTASTIC with 2 iPads and 2 phones. My phone is what usually dies during crucial moments like doctors appts and such. Trying to listen to the doctor with a whining 3 year old is horrible.
After what should have been a 6 hour car ride turned into 11 be case of a wreck and a detour my iPad was losing it and my daughter was losing it and I was most definitely losing it since I was driving the whole time. I plugged it into the USB but it couldn’t stretch far enough so we were charging it at like 10 minute intervals it was awful!!!
No power, or power cord and child in a non childproofed house covered in white carpet and breakables. Lots of breakables. Horror.
We are taking a road trip this weekend with 3 kids for +12 hours in the car. If our phones run out of battery, the trip may just feel twice as long.
My phone died while driving my then 2 1/2 year old and infant home. I stopped for gas and managed to lock both my keys and my kids inside my car. The dead phone did exactly jacksquat towards helping me out of that suck-filled situation.
We were on a flight back home from Disney World, so nobody was happy anyway. The iPad ran out of battery with an hour left to go and it was torture for everyone involved.
Overseas flight, cramped, miserable, and then to top it off we get stuck at our layover an extra 2 hours. 3 kids who are now so bored and tired they can’t see straight and I couldn’t for the life of me find a free outlet to charge the ipad so they could watch a movie. I swear that particular flight is why my hair is so grey now.
Last night! Every tablet in our house decided that it would die at the same time, and my daughter had a major meltdown because of it. Who knew it was so important to be able to see Bubble Guppies on the tablet and NOT the TV!!!??? We eventually calmed her down with jelly beans and a book. I will be investing in one of these chargers for our trip in May but would love the opportunity to win one!
We were driving to Disney last summer when our tablet ran out of power. We had a very angry 2 year old who was in the middle of a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Nothing else entertained him until I gave up my phone.
Any time the kid runs out of battery life is when we need it the most! My four year old understands more now but before would scream and cry. She would say “what am I going to do?! I need something to play on!” And then proceed to run around throwing things. Now if I can get the one year old to play on a tablet when we travel it would help!
There is never enough power for Paw Patrol for my 2 year old when we take transit.
I was driving to visit my boyfriend (now husband) for the first time 5 hours away. My cell phone battery died about 20 miles away from the town he lived in and I had no idea how to find him – yeah that was fun. IT involved calls home to get my parents to call his parents to get directions while I hung out at a gas station. Stressful way to start a fun weekend!
On a loooonnnggg car trip. Alright maybe it was only two hours but it felt like an eternity when the iPad died & the young-in was none to pleased. Neither was mom.
We use the iPad to keep our 2 yr old content and quiet while putting our newborn to sleep, except pretty much every day, we get it out only to realize someone left the iPad on 1% battery. We need some back up!
We were all sick …baby had just fallen asleep on me and the 3 year old had settled down nicely with the iPad . It died and all hell broke loose.
I always seem to run out of power in the car with two babies while lost and trying to use my phone for directions. Who has a map in their car these days?!
Nice supply the MyCharge has! You are a well-prepared mom, good job! I always run out of power when I’m trying to take one last photo! Hate that! (And I’m already subscribed to MyCharge newsletter and your FB page.)
Me laid up with a stomach bug while my husband was at work: I was hoping to occupy my 4 year old while I vomited and the phone died. Tears all around.
breastfeeding my 10 day old in the doctor’s office waiting room the Elmo video shuts off on my 20 month old. # ineedadrink #meltdown # fail
My hubby and I were in NYC, and using our phones as cameras. Of course my phone died and I was stuck with no way to charge it.
This past weekend in DC we were using the app on my phone for the zoo. The daughter needed to play on the phone on the metro to avoid meltdown. We arrived at our stop. No battery left to call the hotel to pick us up. You try to find a pay phone in this day and age. 🙂
The time my iphone suddenly went from 33% battery to dead in one minute while my 5-year old was playing Angry Birds. I think I suffered permanent hearing loss from that one : )
We were on our way back from the zoo and Wrigs was content looking at all the pictures we took on Daddy’s phone…and then it happened! We were only 20 minutes away from home but it might as well have been an eternity. #moremonkeys
We were at a CVS Minute Clinic and I let my 3 year old play games on my phone while we waited. After an hour of waiting my phone died and my son dissolved into a hysterical mess and nothing else would do. At this point we still had an estimated wait of over an hour, ugh. Luckily he was so loud and annoying that someone let us go in their place so we would get out of there sooner.
We drove from PA to FL (specifically Disney) left late in the evening and drove all night. When she woke up we were pretty vague as to why we were in the car. We wanted where we were going to be a surprise and there was only a few hours left. She was content to play w/ her Kindle but when that died every 10 minutes “where are we going?” “I’m bored” “can’t we do something fun?” I was so happy to finally arrive! And she was completely floored when she realized where we were.
We had to travel overnight and we ran of battery 2 minutes before they announced a delay of 2 hours. We ended up running and playing in the terminal, but we totally panicked when we pictured our 10 h trip without iPad.
I was shopping at Target and specifically selecting items that had Cartwheel deals. After about an hour of shopping (with kids in tow) my phone died right before I got to the checkout! I was not a happy camper to miss out on all those deals!
We had to take a shuttle to the airport, and we had to get there about 3 1/2 hours because of it, my 3yo played, colored, ate lunch and was doing fine with no electronics until the flight was delayed, we broke out the tablet for her to use, after some time I knew we needed to charge it but taking it away would be an issue (I mean I was getting fed up at this point too) so we went to find a free outlet that she could use while it was plugged in and we couldnt find one that worked. By the time we did it was time to board our flight… I could have really used a MyCharge hub for that flight….
On our flight from Virginia to Italy, I was so frazzled from making sure I packed everything but the kitchen sink cos we were traveling with our then-14 month old that I forgot to make sure the iPad was charged. Long story short, I didn’t sleep a wink cos I had to be my toddler’s entertainment for the entire flight. I had to sing “Part of Your World” one million times, in hushed tones of course.
Wouldn’t have happened if we had the myCharge Hub.
All the time! The worst was a long road trip when the car charger decided to stop working a little less than 1/2 way to our destination. Bored, crying 4 year old = no fun for mama.
We were on a 10 hour roas trip from PA to SC. My daughter and sons kindles both died of battery loss after the first 3 hours and we didnt stop to recharge anywhere, it was so awful! Poor kids!
When your ipad does in the middle of their favorite movie. Or right before bed and then they can’t listen to music.
How great for you to be able to relax on a flight with your kids. I hope mine behave so well once they turn 5.
My phone died on a road trip from Chicago to North Carolina with my 3yo, 1 1/2 yo and 3 month old. And my hubby, dad and bro in the car – so I was wedged all the way in the back between two car seats. We drove at night so it was too dark to read and I can’t sleep in cars. Not planning on any road trips anytime soon!
I’m a wedding planner and running out of battery while at a wedding is not an option. I’m always on the hunt for a plug when I know that I will be in one room for more then 5 minutes, which is almost never. Our timelines and documents are all on the ipad, though I keep a hard copy on hand because I don’t trust technology. I communicate with my team via group texts and take photos to upload to instagram in real time!! One of these would be a game changer for me and my team!!
My 4 year old son really enjoys the PBS kids app and enjoys watching it in the car when we travel from my parent’s house to our home. It’s only an hour drive but that can be an especially long 60 minute trip if my phone is dead from trying to find a signal out in the boondocks while we’ve been visiting.
When we moved from Australia to NY and our laptop died two hours into a 14 hour flight so my two year old sang The Wiggles LOUDLY most of the way to Los Angeles where she promptly passed out upon landing. Apparently adorable toddlers don’t need to be conscious to enter the U.S.
We have to do the reverse trip in June, with an additional baby to see the Grandparents and I am ALREADY hoarding portable distractions.
While my husband was at a conference I packed my kids up and took a 4 hour road trip to visit my sister. At night. In the rain. We had planned on leaving the next morning, but had to leave early to beat a snow storm. My daughter was watching the Lego Movie in the iPad and we were about ten minutes away when the darn thing died. It was a tragedy! (I wrote about it on my blog twicethecrumbs.weebly.com)
One day my oldest daughter was sick and I was on the way to the doctor when my car broke down in the middle of traffic. I looked down my phone was dead, my daughter in the back seat crying with a fever while people honked their horn at me. Thank God for a bystander who saw my tears and not only let me borrow their phone but helped push my car out of the way till my husband arrived.
On our trip to Disney World last August my phone and only camera on the trip died not even half way into our day at the park. Definitely looking to avoid that mishap on our next trip to WDW in May!
My daughter is OBSESSED with the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. So she carries my phone around with her constantly while its playing, and every time I have to steal it away to charge it, it is officially the apocalypse! A portable charger would be amazing !
Me and my 5year old daughter were in our way to pick up a second hand Lego sets and I had the address in the phone’s gps and in the middle our the way there my phone died! So no gps and no idea where this place was! She cried the whole way back home (30+min) and I almost did too!!!!
My family traveled from TN to PA during a military move to MD last summer. It was a 13 hour drive with me, my wife, and our three boys. We had two cars so we each drove one with the toddler in her car and the boys switching back and forth when we would stop. The toddler and middle child had iPads, the oldest had an iPhone, my wife had her phone and I had mine. Her car also had dual screen dvd player, so we really thought we were set for digital entertainment. However, when we started out we realized that only one screen of the dvd player worked and it had to be plugged in the whole time for that. The toddler’s iPad only holds charge for about 4 hours so it died early in the trip. He then got so upset that he puked all over himself and his carseat. The middle child was mad that he didn’t have wifi and so he ran off of data which I think killed it pretty fast too. Then he said his charger was buried in his bag in one of the cars but he didn’t know which and we weren’t spending time digging around trying to find it. Something happened with the fuses in my car so none of the charging ports were working and neither was the radio.
Around 10 hours into the trip, at 11 at night, I got really sick and dizzy. I couldn’t pull over because I was following my wife and the gps was dead (no way to charge it since none of the ports were working) and my phone was dead as well. My oldest son was with me so I had him call my wife. He said “my phone is almost dead” and he had no signal. By the time he was finally able to get through to her we were on a stretch of interstate where we couldn’t stop for another hour. I spent that hour in a dark, silent car feeling like I was going to die, or at the very least crash the car. We eventually able to stop for a bit until I recovered but then we still had another hour and a half to drive in the dark.
So I definitely wish I had an extra charging device then for entertainment and emergency purposes. Worst 13 hours ever.
A portable charger is never more important than in an emergency situation with a child! How about car accident on the interstate with a semi-truck, stuck on the side of the road for hours while waiting for a tow and THEN waiting to make arrangements for a rental to get home! A new MUST HAVE in the emergency kit!
My husband and I recently traveled to Philly to see some old friends. We both used our phones pretty much the entire time we waited on our flight, then on our flight. Once we got to pick up our rental car we were both in the red and we needed to use Google Maps to navigate where we were going. We bought a USB lighter charges from the rental place but it ended up not working. So we had to alternate using each other’s map app so we didn’t run out of the precious little battery we had. I could definitely use one of those chargers!!!
No specific situation, but my husband is THE WORST when it comes to his phone and battery life. (Lets his phone get down to 1% or dead before charging every time) He is on it constantly, and often works nights and weekends, so he is always in need of more juice. I bought him a battery case once, but then he dropped his 1 week old phone in it and shattered the screen, so now it’s Otterbox all the way. A portable charger would be a lifesaver for him!
Took my 5 year old and 6 month old to watch the 10 year old play soccer. 5 year old’s Kindle ran out of battery. Spent the entire hour walking around and dropping to the floor at random pretending he was a Transformer. Didn’t matter if people were right in front, behind, or beside him.
Every time we fly my 7 and 5 yr old runs out of battery… Our most recent trip was to actually Utah, in December, not only do they both run out but I had our then 11-month-old baby with us, so it was not fun!!
Driving for 8 hours with both kids to Disneyland… I thought I would be able to charge the tablets in the car while driving, but the charger stopped working… horrible car ride with lots of screaming and tears… and the children were worse!
Oh, I have run out of battery power on my various devices more than I can even remember! And each time I swear I am going to get a battery backup, and have yet to do so. The most recent episode was when we were already late for a birthday party (of course), and my phone died while Siri was giving us directions. The place we were going is one you can see from the Interstate but the way to get to it is not.even.close to the effing Interstate. Luckily, we had been there for another party about six months ago, so I drove around hopelessly lost until I passed by the street and the heavens opened up and angels started singing “This Is The Way, Oh Great Lost Mother” in angelic harmony. They were right! And I have really, really tried to have my phone charged since then!! But, like all good intentions, that too will fade in the not-too-distant future.
Driving back from northern Michigan to Atlanta – all in one day! When the devices weren’t charged, the kids were loud and definitely bored. Especially since they were tired of all the activities, games, etc. that I had planned for the 10-day trip – they used up all that stuff on the way to Michigan!
I had my phone plugged in to charge (I thought) in my van while my girls and I went to visit my cousin out-of-state. I was running the GPS and music for them completely carefree BECAUSE I WAS PLUGGED IN. We stopped for lunch and my phone was at 20% and I had no idea why. I realized it wasn’t charging and decided to plug it in to a different cigarette lighter outlet to see if I had just killed the main one I use. That one didn’t work either. My phone was now at 18% and still dropping. I hadn’t grabbed my wall charger because we were just going on a 2 hour drive and my van would charge it. Turns out my car charger had a short in it that took out the fuses in every plug I tried. I was starting to panic because I needed the GPS to figure out where I was going. We asked around, but nobody had a charger at the restaurant, so we went next door to JoAnn’s fabric and found an employee with a charger. I sat on the floor babysitting my charging phone while my girls danced in their silk flower aisle for an hour to get enough charge to run the GPS to make it the rest of the way to my cousin’s house.
We were recently flying from Texas to CA 3hr flight. My son had his mario games and DS. Our flight had been delayed few hours THEN we had to wait for the plane to be de-iced. (I welcome the safety procedure. But it tacked on even more wait time). so by the time we actually got to the flying part of the flight…. The D.S. Called it quits. I get it. It had been on the clock for a while already. So instead of a much needed nap for me (I had pulled an all nighter because we had to get to the airport so early), every time I started to dose there was a little tap tap tap on my shoulder. Momma do you have snacks…. Tap tap tap… Momma look at this.. Tap tap tap mom I dropped a crayon… You get the picture right? FOR THREE STINKIN HOURS!!!!
The only time my 2 year old is allowed to play on the iPad is when we’re watching older sister at her swimming lessons. Dead battery on the iPad and my phone mean chasing a toddler around and trying to keep him off the pool deck and from jumping in the pool while simultaneously trying to watch my daughter swim. Not my most relaxing afternoon.
I was at the hospital to be induced with our first child and I had charged my phone the night before. I didn’t pay much attention to my phone charge for a few hours because I was keeping friends and family updated via text and social media. And, of course, my battery died before I was able to take pictures of our precious newborn. Good thing daddy had a charge and saved the day!
One of the only thing that soothed our 6 week old baby was white noise. When traveling for the holidays to my husband’s home town my phone that was playing the white noise app. died, and he immediately woke up and refused to sleep the rest of the way. I had to sit in the back with him wushing as loud as I could directly in his ear to try to calm him. Of course since he liked the ocean sound, and I was not good at making wave sounds it didn’t work.
DISNEYLAND!! We had only gone on about 3 rides when my phone hit the red , my brother and husband quickly ran out as well. We had a back up iPod that didn’t make it past the afternoon. The only outlet I found was in the locker room and it was only during the moment after we found our spot to watch the fireworks that I was allowed by my 3 mini minions to try to charge my device. It got to about 12% before i had to run back or else be scolded by the birthday girl. Needless to say most of our day wasn’t documented
My darling daughter (age 2) does NOT travel well. We were in a hotel in San Francisco and trying to get her to sleep. She refused, and letting her cry did not work ( it might have but people in the adjoining rooms started knocking on the door asking if she was ok so rather than get kicked out of the hotel or reported to the police we opted for unlimited iPad time. ). Since this was after a full day of travel we quickly got to the end of the iPad battery, my cell phone battery and my husbands battery and of course only had one charger with us. My husband ended up going for a midnight drive with her in the rental car, around and around the parking ramp. I won’t be taking her on a trip until she learns to sleep away from home or until I can guarantee uninterrupted screen time.
I was driving home, expecting a 3 hour trip, when the outlet in my car stopped working so I couldn’t charge my phone. I needed my phone for directions, and to make matters worse it turned into a 6.5 hour trip.
We were driving to see the in laws, my poor infant finally fell asleep after screaming and crying for an hour. Well when ‘big Diego’ ran out of batteries (Kindle), the 3yr old started screaming and crying, waking up the infant with another 45 minutes left in the drive. P.S. ‘Diego’ was an old ipod that we loaded some Diego episodes on, so when he got a Kindle for Christmas he didn’t know what it was, so I told him it was a ‘big Diego’.
while waiting in the mile long line at the phone store my phone battery died and my son couldn’t watch his Disney Jr. episodes. The earth opened up, floods started, volcanoes erupted. We almost lost the planet. Sorry. 🙂
traveling by air (alone) with my 2 and 3 yr old girls we had a two hr layover. 1/2 hr into said layover the laptop is dead and there was not a vacant outlet to be found.
We have to drive weekly 3 hours, to get my stepson and my 19 month old was doing so well until the tablet died when we were 20 minutes from home. Screaming ensued for the remainder of our trip :\
While using turn by turn to get to a party about 20 minutes from home. Went totally dead. I only had stored the address on my phone and didn’t have a clue where it was or how to get in contact…
We were in the middle of a 4 hour car ride and the iPad went dead in the middle of her game. Major meltdown, especially since we didn’t bring a car charger!
I don’t think I’ve ever run out of battery, but daughter is just now grabbing my phone to use the camera feature – no tv or games yet.
we ran out of battery power on a six hour car ride with my son and tried to charge at rest stops. Needless to say that did not work very well. Plus rest stops are not where you want to hang out to charge!
It happens all the time- take your pick! My toddler only eats if he’s watching cartoons on my phone. Of it dies in the middle of a meal he freaks out and won’t eat anymore!
My phone ran out of batteries as the plane landed. No fun trying to charge to call for the ride, keep kids occupied and collect luggage
Any time we have to wait I pull out my phone or tablet to entertain my toddler. If I forget to charge them then everyone around us suffers, either from high pitched screaming or having to hear me sing “It’s a Small World” over and over again. No one likes that song except my two year old, but I think it might be the lesser of two evils. Maybe.
In the middle of an 8 hour car trip and the DVD player ran out of batteries. It was a choice of giving my daughter my phone and having that run out or listening to her whine. I gave her my phone.
In an attempt to lock in that Mother of the Year award I always let my 2.5 year old watch a movie while we grocery shop (hey she’s quiet and not going tazmanian devil style through the aisles so whatev) It’s all fun and games until the kindle shuts off in the middle of Tangled….oh.my.lord.
If I didn’t need food so badly I would have left my cart.
We were on the way to the beach with our grand-daughter and feeling pretty good about it. We talked about how much we wished we had I-phones and I-pads when our children were little and how easy parents have it now days. Hahaha, little did we know that about an hour and a half into the trip we would experience the hell that comes from not checking to see if the I-pad was fully charged before leaving and having the chargers packed in the suitcases in the back. Nope, not one to be found up front with us!
My husband and 4-year old son are CONSTANTLY putting my son’s Kindle to charge on a plug that needs the light switch to be on to work – and of course the light switch is NEVER on. Everytime we go to take it anywhere, it is dead.
The worse time I ever lost a charge was on our 12-hour drive to South Carolina. We are about 5 miles away but stuck in the worst traffic in a downpour and it dies. While it was only a 1/2 hour, it was the worst since they were already cranky after being in the car for so long.
Took my then 2 year old with me to an obgyn appointment when I was pregnant with #2. It wasn’t my best idea. My phone lost it’s charge about halfway through my checkup at a point when I was “being examined.” Not good.
After a full day at Disney World last summer, we ran out of “juice” as we were trying to change our FastPasses via the Disney app. No way was I putting a tired toddler on a ride she agreed to earlier in the day, only to change her mind once she started coming down from her “Disney high” after sunset. So we made the trek to a kiosk on the other side of the park from where we were to make the change. A MyCharge would have saved us a few valuable steps. Hmmmm, a MyCharge store in Disney?
Had an ob appointment, no choice but to bring my little kid. Had the ipad charged overnight. Woke up and started doing mom stuff then got ready for my appointment. I hadn’t realized he was using the ipad already this morning. I guess for awhile since he must have woken up wayyyyy before me. So I had no choice but to take the less than half charged pad. Figuring if he only uses it in the appointment we’ll be fine. Well dr took extra long…of course..and mid pap kid starts whining and telling me to fix it. He was practically banging my face with the pad. I was like fml. My legs up in the air. Yea fun times lol.
My son always forgets to charge his Kindle! Then he argues with me that he turned it off, not understanding that even though it is off, it still needs to charge!
My phone died after I dropped my (teen) daughter off at her friend’s house. It was the first time driving out there (30 minutes from our house) and I was relying on my map app. I had to run in to an electronics store and spend $40 on a portable charger that I haven’t used since (it’s not that good). I’d love to have a reliable charger for emergencies!
Sardine can flight from Paris to Houston with 22 month-old and a total of one inflight cartoon that held her attention for all of 40 seconds. It was a smooth first 6 hours of non-stop Peppa Pig and Up! until the iPad mini finally went kaput, followed by a remaining 6 hours of full-on vomiting, some inconsolable crying, non-stop fidgeting, Houdini seat belt wrangling, isle running, no you cannot change my diaper squirming, I will bite you-ing, no way I’m napping, you suck eye rolling, unapologetic face whopping, total tantrum-ing, your idle threats mean nothing, I love you long enough to hate you again and I don’t care that you’re crying. Never mind that we ran out of diapers at Charles de Gaulle before we even took off. I’ll take MacGyver-ing Air France pillow cases and poly-fleece blankets into disposable diapers any day over ever, EVER, running out of iPad juice on a long haul flight. It’s almost still too painful to even think about.
3 kids ages 5, 2 and newborn in an airport with a flight that just got delayed several hours. I got on airport wifi and had Netflix ready to go for 5 and 2 year old. Tablet battery dies after two minute of Bubble Guppies. Insane panic and instant meltdowns ensue. Frantic search for a wall plug ends in failure. Attempts to charge usig USB from laptop are a no go after determining the laptop battery was also dead. Worst. Planning. Ever.