When Are We Going To Get There?

Any trip, any length, it doesn't matter if you are going to the neighborhood store for some milk, you know the question is coming. "When are we going to get there?" is inevitable. After having four boys, you would think that I would have a good answer, but I don't. "We'll get there, when we get there" seems to be the typical response these days, but that is not satisfying. When I am low on patience, I might respond with, "if you ask me one more time, I'm going to turn the car around and go home," but that doesn't work either.

I obviously lack a proper response or suggestion on this one. My only observation is that all of my boys, the ones old enough to talk, of course, asks this most classic of travel questions. Giving them an estimate of the time of arrival only satisfies them for about 5 minutes. I don't want to get them a handheld video game, just to keep them quiet. My wife and I feel that children should be able to find entertainment in conversation, the view out the window, reading, magnetic chess or some other thing that requires their mind other than a video game. We're old fashioned that way.

I would have to confess, that sometimes when I am alone driving one of the boys, I do give them my cellphone so they can play the one video game on it and keep entertained.