[Seahawk]

I had two child rearing philosophies: Do not inflict my children on others and long car trips are a *****.

As JD said, I can't remember taking my children to a restaurant before they were six and four. Frankly, we did the Au Pair thing and a Saturday night out with just my wife and I was great.

My children rarely acted out in public and if they did they were taken out of the public sphere immediately. They either behaved or we went home.

I was an early adopter of using media to lull my kids into cartoon comas on long car trips. We bought a 10" TV/VCR that plugged into the cig lighter: splitter for the headphones and let Disney be your babysitter. They later each got their own CD player for movies, then laptops.

It was the only time they had unlimited access. I-95 is no place to try and learn about the USA.