We have a Kindle Fire (mine), a Nintendo DS, and an iPhone (mine) that the boys can use. The iPhone is the most popular because of Minecraft. Prior to their knowledge of that game the Kindle was definitely the most popular. The Kindle also requires less management on my part because I don’t have it on a phone plan so they can’t use data outside a wireless connection, and generally the permissions are set once across all apps. With the phone I have to set up permissions separately for each app. I think we’ll need a 4^th device soon as our 4^th child is starting to use the Kindle some.  Ideally this will be a 4^th thing vs a duplicate.  But, they’re pretty much only all in use at the same time when we travel long distances (see post from Sept 17, 2014) so this is not something I have to think about any time soon.

The simple answer is sometimes.  We too like eating out. We did before any kids were born, and we still do regularly even with 5. We keep it simple. Until they can sit in a high chair we bring one cloth book (same one, stays in the diaper bag). When they’re in the high chair we bring cheerios. Once they understand not to eat the crayons we’re done – not toys, electronics, etc, – you entertain yourself through conversation or whatever the restaurant provides for kids. We keep them in a high chair as long as possible – boosters are useless and a lot more effort to keep them from tipping over. Unless its a crying baby, the child has to stay in their seat until we’re paid up and ready to go. We don’t go to fancy restaurants with kids, but to regular family friendly ones – Margarita’s and Tokyo’s Hibachi are two favorites. Dead silence would be bad, but I don’t want to go someplace too loud either. And, we’re more likely to go at lunch rather than deal with tired, hungry kids though we still do dinner from time to time.

Other people’s houses are another matter. If they have kids, great; they just have to be contained where the toys are. 15m is definitely the hardest as all they want to do is explore, but that will get better in a few months. If they don’t have kids, it won’t be childproofed and the exploring can be a big problem. We definitely have people to our house more now (also because we overwhelm many typical homes). When they were young we used to go to our childless friends houses later and take the pack n plays. I’d often feed them at home first. We could park them in an upstairs bedroom, enjoy our evening, and then reclaim them when it was time to go home.

I often hear women complaining about boys in the women’s restroom.  They understand why they’re there and that they’re young.  In fact, in most cases they have boys themselves.

My older boys can handle the men’s restroom themselves.  But, I still often have to bring them in the women’s restroom because they can’t reach the soap to wash their hands.  Sometimes it’s the paper towels, but almost always it’s the soap.  This problem is everywhere and often.  There is not always a family restroom.  I wish bathroom designers would bring at least one of the soap dispensers out from behind the counter so kids with shorter arms could actually use it.

We did a lot of driving this summer.  Our kids are pretty ok in the car.  We give each (who are old enough) of them a reuseable grocery bag.  In this goes a clipboard, washable coloring implements of their choice, a pad of drawing paper, a new book, and a stuffed animal of their choice.  I have a separate bag with blank paper, some paper games/printouts (such as Mad Libs, Travel Bingo, etc.), anything to entertain the baby, and all in car electronics.

We consciously did not purchase an in-vehicle DVD player when we got the new minivan with our 4^th.  We figured on using individual electronics (most of which we already had and we expect to purchase more as they get older) and I didn’t want to be responsible for disputes as to what trips were long enough to qualify for DVD watching.

Since no child has their own, hand-held electronics currently get rotated through the vehicle.  For this summer we had an iPhone, a Kindle Fire, and a Nintendo DS among 4 kids.  None had internet connections.  The iPhone can be recharged in the car, but the others had to wait until we stopped for the night.  So, most devices had two available turns.  Between these options, plus the inevitable free meal toys we accumulate, the boys were fine for many full days in the car.