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.
I have a 16 year old son who spends a lot of time in NYC with his friends. We live about 30 min outside of the city. He traveled to NYC with his friends last weekend for dinner with a 20% charge on his phone. He promised me he would borrow a friend’s charger to charge his phone on the train/at the restaurant…wherever. However, an outlet wasn’t that easily available, the friend didn’t bring a charger, all 5 boys had to use it…whatever. Needless to say, his phone died. HIS PHONE DIED…OUR LIFELINE DIED!! He was in the BIG CITY with no way to contact me. Or worse…for me to contact him!! He made it home safely…thank goodness…and even borrowed a friend’s phone to text me the time of the train he made. But let me tell you…I don’t ever want to go through that again…EVER!! If only he had a MYCHARGE HUB 6000!!
I didn’t become addicted to my electronic devices until I had my daughter, who turns two next Tuesday. When I went back to work when she was two months I had to pump multiple times a day bc ya know pumping isn’t always quick and easy to get enough to feed the bottomless pit of a baby. I also teach at an urban high school in a small building. I would count on using my phone to distract me enough that I didn’t hear all the wandering and graphic hollering in the hallway. The few times my phone died were very unproductive mama milk days.
Flying, without a charger, out of contact with my two daughters, my husband and worst of all, my favorite blogs and apps! Almost as bad is the continually checking the battery and worrying that the phone is going to die. And finally, I stop using it out of fear – all that entertainment time lost!
My son riding his bike home from school calling me to tell me my other son is hurt.
Last thing I hear before the phone died….
“meet us at……….”
it’s a two-mile bike trip, most through paths not accessible by car.
I ran….I can’t run….by the time I got to them passerbys were helping, I was panting I tink I needed assistance myself!
The iPad died while eating waffles. S-Show.
On our trip from Texas to Florida. We had to search and find a best buy or target something that sold a car charger to charge it up before we heard ” are we there yet?” one more time! Never again… I will make sure we are prepared for our next trip in Nov.
At a Taylor Swift concert… how was I suppose to instagram it if my phone battery died!
We had just landed in Sacramento and I had used my phone the whole 5 hour plane ride (to edit photos too!). We needed to get to Lake Tahoe and I was in charge of directions. But I was only on 2 percent and the backup power charger was out of charge! I got us on the main highway (thank goodness) but then my phone died. Let’s just say that I really don’t know how people did it without Google Maps. Paper maps from a tiny gas station really don’t cut it.
We were at Woodbury Commons in upstate New York with my (then) 18m old. As we headed out of the parking lot, there was a major accident at the center of the intersection leading into the Commons that caused an electrical poll to go down in flames. This shut down all traffic in and out of the commons for 5 hours. We had no phone charger, no food, 1 diaper, and a dying iPad, 2 dying iPhones…and a very hungry toddler. Haven’t been back since…and she’s 7.
My phone died at Disneyland, so I couldn’t keep track of where everyone was and how to meet up. We had to drag 20 people on all the same rides. Crazy time!
Xmas 2012 (or13)…Stuck on the NY Thruway in a snow storm, with 4 and 2 year olds cranky mom, tired dad. Sheer ice and didn’t move for hours! Even when we found friends who were 7 mules away, it still took another hour. 4 hour trip turned into 9. Horrors!
Phone died after 45 minutes with a sick, grumpy kid still waiting to see the dr at peds office. I needed a glass of wine by the time my little guy was finally seen.
I was flying from Atlanta to Manila and the flight (including layovers) is 29 hours long. I’ve downloaded several tv show episodes and movies to my ipad. On the last leg in Japan, I missed my flight and had to spend the whole night in the airport. To make matters worse, I left my charger on my checked bags so I ran out of ipad battery. Not great, especially when all you have for tv entertainment is Japanese tv shows.
Peppa pig on YouTube ran out my battery right before I left on a road trip. Would’ve liked to not worry about the gps running my battery low.
I haven’t run out of power yet, but there was the time I *thought* I had downloaded an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and hadn’t. Not my best mommy moment.
I was at home alone with my 2 year old and 4 month old, hubby was working late. My phone more than died, it wouldn’t even turn back on or reset itself! We don’t have a home phone so I had no way of getting in touch with anyone. I was texting people from my ipad to let them know I was okay! I either need a landline or the Hub! 😉
I spent 4 months teaching my baby how to roll over, and the first time she actually did it I missed getting it on camera because my phone was dead.
Hasn’t happened yet, but we are traveling this summer and one of these would so come in handy to prevent it!
Last summer my phone lost battery life on our drive from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. We were headed up for a wedding and I let my then 2 1/2 year old play games and watch videos. My phone battery only made it about 1/2 of the 10 hour drive. Then the whining and tantrums came. I was very pregnant and very tired and wished I would have brought a charger. Then my phone died again the day of the wedding when I let my daughter (who was a flower girl) play on it while us ladies (I was the matron of honor) got ready. One of these chargers would be amazing! Especially since again we will be headed to Lake Tahoe twice this summer again for weddings.
Twice a week my 3 year old and I have a hideous 2 hour commute home – without the kindle I’d be toast. 3 weeks ago I opened it up to pass to him – DEAD – horrors! I ended up giving him my phone (in airplane mode) 1 hour in… Which was fine as long as I ignore 5578 pictures he took 🙂
I am terrible at directions, and need to use my phone for directions every time. One night I had left a wedding party and after lots oh photo taking and video taking, my phone was down to less than 10% battery. I was horrified because it’s at least 40 minutes back home! I had to drive really fast and hope for the best.
I totally need a My Hub to make sure I never get lost in the future!
My phone has the lovely tendency of dying at around 40% but once it gets plugged in, it goes right back up to where it was. I usually wish I had a charger with me when I’m using it for google maps. Many times I’ve been stranded looking for an outlet when I need to leave a place and my phone died.
My children played in softball and baseball tournaments on the weekends, and our devices never made it through the entire day.
When do my devices die at inappropriate times? ALWAYS! just. always. Perfect pic? Flash is dead. Airport delay? Tablet’s dead. Quiet restaurant? No Micky tonight! I NEED this charger!
Waiting for my son to finish therapy, we ran out of power. I was “that mom” who was told how I “had my hands full” by the waiting room full of people watching my boys bounce off the walls, and chairs, and fish tank, and magazine rack…
The time my 2 year old lost it when our tablet died on the Cross Bronx Expressway in gridlocked traffic. August heat + cray cray toddler = unhappy everyone.
So we set out the IPad and snacks for my daughter every night so she can wake up at 5:00 in the morning and entertain herself until we pull ourselves out of bed. Well, when that little IPad loses power at 5:30 AM, it is s sad story…
I seem to ALWAYS loose battery in my phone when I’m im need of it the most. When I loose power at the house or I’m out shopping and need to meet someone after, when I’m driving in the middle of nowhere…The list goes on and on. The ihub charger would be a savor to me!
I meant the my Hub charger! I’d like to blame autocorrect but that one was my fault!
My problem isn’t usually my kids’ devices running out of battery, but they love to play games on my iPhone and by the time i get it back, the battery is usually around 10%!
We are on vacation in Australia right now, and really could’ve used a MyCharge Hub! We were driving from Sydney to Melbourne (9 hours!) over 2 days. At our overnight stopover, my husband plugged in our son’s ipad, but didn’t notice that the outlet switch was turned off! In Australia almost all of the outlets have an on/off switch right next to them, which we sometimes forget about since it’s not as common in the US. When we woke in the morning, ready for our 5 hour drive, the ipad had exactly 6% of it’s battery. It lasted about 15 minutes. Our son managed the last 4:45 as well as could be expected for a 3 year old, but it was hard on all of us.
We were on a plane traveling home after a long two weeks away from all our important stuff. You see, while I’d done my best to be a good mommy to my toddler, I’d apparently not brought the “right” cup, there weren’t enough stuffed animals, and I packed the “wrong” shoes – just to name a few of her complaints. I was content in knowing I only had to make it a few more hours until reaching my destination when I realized that my failings had not yet reached their end. Because life is never easy, and I always seem to forget something, while I thought our device was charged and ready to play the movie I’d already promised to my daughter, it just… Wasn’t. So she cried and wailed and then proceeded to do many horrific things. Did I mention it was just me and her? No daddy? Yeah. The worst was how she would cling, like a spider monkey, to the chair in front of us. And the man in that seat had obviously never come into contact with a child under two (or any kid) because he was NOT understanding. At all. And I also wanted to cry. I might have, actually. I can’t tell you about it because I don’t remember much after the dead battery and the chair clinging. I think I repressed it. But I can tell you that a red battery symbol makes me want to drop to the floor, huddle into fetal position, and hum loudly, while kinda writhing around. While sobbing. The ugly kind.
Leaving a concert and getting separated from my friends… Phone died but some nice person let my use their phone.
Spontaneously, we decided to take my daughter to Disneyland for the first time on Superbowl Sunday. (I thought I was being clever by choosing a day when everyone would be glued to their tv. Not so much.) The lines were still horrendous and the only thing keeping my daughter happy was endless episodes of Peppa Pig while we waited in line. We tried really hard to ration the batteries on our phones so we’d at least have enough to take key memory-keeping pictures with…. but sadly, we missed out being able to take a picture of her meeting Mickey for the first time. Darn Peppa ate up all the battery!
My first week of teaching, I was trying to make a strong impression on my classroom full of middle schoolers, when the power went out in the entire school. Unfortunately, my laptop was not charged at all. WIth no access to my powerpoint or lesson plans, my nervousness took over as i stumbled through the next HOUR of teaching, with no lights, lesson or visuals.
12 hour drive to New England and an ipad that lost power about half way through. Mom learned her lesson that day and has since not made sure that the ipad was 100% charged before leaving. A hub would be great for our upcoming trip to florida.
I entered so I was on a 15 hour flight with my 6 year old. Her iPad was on 50% 2 1/2 hours later.. “MOMMY!!!!!!! MY IPADS DEAD LETT ME USE YOUR PHOOONE!!” She was screaming so loud everyone was awake and looking at us. The worst part was the tv’s were broken so she couldn’t watch TV. This happened 2 weeks should I wish I had the hub!
I entered so I was on a 15 hour flight with my 6 year old. Her iPad was on 50% 2 1/2 hours later.. “MOMMY!!!!!!! MY IPADS DEAD LETT ME USE YOUR PHOOONE!!” She was screaming so loud everyone was awake and looking at us. The worst part was the tv’s were broken so she couldn’t watch TV. This happened 2 weeks ago I wish I had the hub!
I had plugged in the iPad the night before a long road trip with my niece, not realizing the charger was not plugged into the wall. Needless to say a 9-hour road trip was her biggest nightmare since she only made it through half of Frozen before it died:( Thank God for Disney radio!
At work. Always! Usually right when a big event is happening!
Taking a 12+ hour flight this summer with our toddler and have a feeling this will be a necessity!
Living in Florida means constant disney park trips, so hours on end spent roaming and riding. Between tweeting updates and posting pictures of princesses whenever my phone dies half way through the day it’s a tragedy.
I walk in the Susan G Komen 3Day for Breast Cancer every year, sometimes multiple times in a year. Over the course of 3 days we cover 60 miles.
On more than one occassion my phone battery went dead and as a result I was unable to communicate with my teammates (and on the 3rd day my family) to let them know where I was, and that I was safe.
With a back up like mycharge, those days would be far behind me!
We have had the battery die on our DVD player on a long car trip- it’s hard to explain to a two-year old that Dora isn’t coming back! We have a long drive scheduled for May, and this charger would be a huge help for our phones and my iPad!
Adam’s first time on the plane (3 year old) and battery ran out as we had to wait for pilot… Who was late for the flight.
We went out for a family dinner at a nice restaurant for a birthday. My toddler was getting super cranky and she loves pressing the “home” button on my iPhone and “talking” to Siri. After playing with my phone for a few mins, it died. I had forgotten to charge it earlier in the day. She went into full toddler meltdown mode! So embarrassing. I ended up having to take her out of the restaurant to calm down.
We live far away from both parents and it was the long drive home from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin 15+hours. We sure could have used the charger then.
My family was traveling to SC last June. On the way home we forgot to fully charge the Ipad. Our flight was delayed and my 3 yr old at the time was watching a movie when the IPad died. Not fun, to say the least. After the tears we found some other distractions. Thank goodness she fell asleep on the plane ride home.
We lost battery power on hr 2 of a 6 hr car trip! It was awful and required lots of Frozen sing alongs
While sitting in a car watching a rainy baseball practice for my 9 year old with his 5 year old and 3 year old siblings. Seriously the worst time to run out of battery! I need a new charger for the car!!
I was driving from Mississippi to North Carolina in college and I missed my exit. By the time I realized it, it was too late to turn around so I pulled over and found a new route. It added 4 hours to my 10 hour trip. Most of it was through secluded mountain roads and my gas tank was dwindling. I had only change left on me (broke, irresponsible college kid) and no car charger for my phone. Twice I pulled over to charge my phone at truck stops but I didn’t want to lose any more time, I didn’t have money to eat on, no money left for gas, and if my phone died I would have no way of contacting anyone. My phone died about 45 mins before home, 2am, in the backwoods mountains. I finally made it back to campus just as my gas light came on. My kids will absolutely hear that story because my heart couldn’t take it if one of them were in that situation!
My husband and I ran out of power taking pictures of our son on the train to see Santa. He was three months old and the in-laws were with us and soooooo many pictures of first train ride, first Santa, santa holding him, the elf and the candy cane and each person with the LO. We ran out of juice just after Santa held him so I was happy but my MIL not so much :/
I was on my way to Chicago for a wedding and of course, I’m very much like the “go back inside the in the house last minute while everyone’s sitting in the car ready to go because I forgot my phone charger” type of gal. We just got a new kitten and she was struggling in the car. We had to drop her off half way at a friend’s and half way there she magically stops fidgeting. ‘That wasn’t so bad’ I thought to myself. After she gets dropped off I sit back in the car to see the my charger had become two different pieces. No wonder she was so quiet. She had a snack along the way.
Always happens in the car when we are stuck in LA traffic!
I took the boys to visit friends that lived a few hours away. I let them play games on my phone, and the battery died… We got lost and I had no way to look up directions or call. After an extra hour and a half in the car full of of tears I charged my phone in a dirty diner and got there.
During a doc appointment (for a specialist). Doc was running 2 hours behind. It was brutal! 2 young kiddos at the time. My phone was the only thing keeping them calm. Died!! The germ freak in me wouldn’t let them play with the toys in the waiting room. Even worse was my husband was trying to call to tell me he could pick up the kiddo that was just tagging along… But since my phone was dead due to entertaining the kids…. I was SOL! I’d love the charger and the Visa card would be a bonus for sure!! Thanks for the opportunity!!!
First flight. Battery died 2 mins I to the flight. In all the hustle and bustle, I forgot to charge ANYTHING!
Lollipop anyone? Maybe 30 of them?
Once upon a time, 6 months ago– we were what should have been an 8hour car trip from FL to NC. This trip turned into an 11 hour trip, 3 of which were filled with screaming and tantruming from my then 18 month old because the iPad had died and my husband refused to stop to let it charge ANYWHERE. I blamed him the whole time “WHO FORGETS TO BRING THE CAR ADAPTER ON A ROAD TRIP?!?!”
Karma got my ass 2 months later, on a 2 hour road trip to Tampa. Alone with my toddler, I forgot the damn car adapter and the iPad was at a measly 12%.
We are traveling to NC again this Fall for my sisters wedding…PLEASE DONT LET ME FAIL AGAIN!
I was 7 months pregnant and hiding in the closet during a tornado with my almost two year old using the iPad to keep her contained and check the weather and the battery ran out! It was scary! No one was hurt in the tornado 🙂
i travel often to Portugal to visit family and am a child at heart with the need of entertainment during a long flight. I often have found myself say “are we there yet” and I am 27. My iPad has made the adjustment much easier but thus cannot binge watch parenthood if your iPad battery runs out, leaving me to extend my neck enough to watch the on flight movie
I’m always on instagram right when my phone dies. Sometimes it dies on 30%! I don’t know what’s up with it.
When my daughter just turned 5, we decided to take a mini vacation to mackinaw. . Half way through our 6 hour car ride her tablet died! We had already listened to the frozen soundtrack 1938573 times and played all the car games! Finally she just fell asleep and everything was aokay! 🙂
Two kids, one iPad, one 6 hour flight, and on 4 hour delay! So because of the delay and lots of delays not one power source in the airport was available. So as you can imagine the fully charged iPad lost some significant battery life while we were still on the ground. By the time we took off the battery was down to 40%. Did I mention that my eldest napped in the airport… Let’s just say the 1 1/2 was really long!
I ran out of battery on my iPad while my twins were watching a video as we were waiting for an appointment that was still not for 20-30 minutes away.
My phone always seems to die right before I’m done shopping with my 4yr. Old. She plays games on it while I’m getting stuff done but seems like we always need just 10 more minutes
The iPad died on our way back from storyland. A good three hour drive with my two year old.
Traveling to st thomas in June and would love love love to win!!
My brother was going to propose to his girlfriend in a movie theater. It was all set up- friends and family hiding in the dark theater in the back and my brother and his gf and me and my almost 2 year old daughter ushered into the front row just in time for the fake previews. I guess I thought the iPad had been charging at home but when I turned it on in the theater (volume low) it was at 3%!!! So, the iPad was a bust and without any distractions (raisins and toys aren’t exciting in the theater) the hidden camera captured all of my daughters comments and shenanigans throughout the proposal. Luckily everyone loves her 😉
The last time we drove home to Atlanta from Toronto the iPad ran out of battery. It was an even longer trip home listening to our daughter ask “are we there yet?” every 15 minutes.
We usually take the ipad when we are dining with adults and can’t get a babysitter. Inevitably the ipad always dies about 10 minutes into dinner and we’re handing over phones to keep the boy entertained while we try to have adult conversation.
iPad died and had to somehow redirect my 3 year old who decided the best entertainment in leiu of the iPad was to kick the seat in front of him and say hi repeatedly to the people behind us! Needless to say, it was a loooong flight!
Sitting at yet another doctor’s appointment for my son and the nurses tell me that the doctor had an emergency but to please wait and less than two Minutes later my phone dies and my son cried for the next hour till the doctor was able to see him.
I always seem to lose power on my phone on the days when my daughter gets sick at daycare and they need to call me at work.
I always forget to charge our phones/tablets until RIGHT before we’re ready to leave the house!
On some long road trips down to the shore we have run out of power multiple times on our iPads. I wish we had chargers all over our vehicle so each of us was able to plug in!
All the time when we are out, the iPad dies on my son, which usually leads to major meltdowns in public
Road trip to SoCal with 2 boys ages 6 and 3, it was my youngest first time going to Disneyland and they were excited. My oldest one is easier to entertain, as you also mentioned in your blog, it was my 3 year old who was a little more difficult. We had our phones and the tablet and only one car charger. While he played on the tablet, we charged the phone. The phone had the “funner” games and the tablet had a some of the older games and movies. Once the tablet died, the phone was next, and that was the routine for 5 1/2 hours with our 3 year old. I didn’t even think to download more games before the trip, all i made sure to do was that they were fully charged and junk food to keep them happy. We had a grumpy 3 year old who wasn’t satisfied with the game/movie choices and who refused to nap on our way home. Lesson learned!
Took one trip with my (almost) 4 year old and (almost) 2 year last summer and made the mistake of not remembering the car charger. Eeek! Boston to Maine, 2 ish hours, plus traffic made for an emergency gas station stop and a purchase of a $5 charger… That barely worked.
First plane trip planned for the fall… The plan is to be well prepared!
Last week! At the doctor’s office to see if I had a broken hand from an ill fated attempt at boot camp and right in the middle of Dumbo, my phone died!
My husband and I and our three kids were about to embark on a 3 day drive up the coastal highway (San Diego to San francisco), with multiple stops along the way. I thought I had everything planned and packed: had the iPad, iPhone, and my old iPhone that my kids used, too. Other than my iPhone (which we used for navigation), guess who forgot to charge all the devices? Yup, me!
My phone died just as I was waiting to hear the time and name of my first nephew!!!! I was left in anticipation as I frantically asked everyone in the room for a charger!!!!! I felt as if the whole world would know before me.
I once got stuck in the middle of nowhere, with 2% battery left on my phone, COMPLETELY relying on my phone’so GPS. It was pure panic.
I have a 2 year old daughter, Sophia, that is addicted to Bubble Guppies! We went on a 4 day trip earlier this month to NYC (we actually visited Empire Cake per your blog post). We did a guided tour at the MET, and my plan was for Sophia to use my iPhone to watch Bubble Guppies while riding in her stroller so my husband and I could enjoy the tour. Well, you guessed it! My battery died mid way through the tour and so mommy had to do some inventive entertaining in a museum where you can’t touch anything. We still ended up having a great time!
My phone died while I was telling my friend how to get to where I was with my car with a dead battery.
My husband always runs out of juice before we even take off and sulks the entire flight because he has no other form of entertainment. Bored husbands are worse than bored children.
On the drive from Long Island to Naples Florida with only one charger and it’s charging the phone with the GPS on it and my one year olds iPad dies in the middle of Mickey Mouse Club House=Major breakdown in the car!!!!
Food shopping, 7m pregnant w a 1 year old and a 2 year old in tow. iPad went down, mommy almost went down too.
On our way to Maine from Boston w/ a almost 2 and almost 4 year old. Dead stop traffic and no car charger. Made an emergency gas station stop to grab one of those $5 plug-in ones… That barely worked.
We have a FL trip planned in the fall and plan to be much better prepared!!
I was traveling in Bali. Towards the end of a day of touring, my camera battery died and my cell phone battery died so I had no way to take any photos. Devastating!!
My three year old loves his screen time! He has to watch his octonauts on the way to grandmas!!
On a flight that got delayed with 2 kids and stuck on the runway for a few hours – not fun!
The last couple of hours of a two day car trip no power for the 4-year old’s iPad. Everyone in the car was on their last nerve anyway. I couldn’t get him to calm down and sleep. So miserable, so tired.
We haven’t run out of power with an iDevice, however, when my daughter was three she dropped the portable DVD player to the floor of the plane and sadly it didn’t work after that.
I was at a doctor’s appointment with my son and my phone died. He colored on their chairs while I was trying to fill out paperwork and I had to keep him from escaping the exam room while I tried to give the doctor his history. Pretty sure he also damaged their blinds while climbing on their chairs.
I was in the car on a very important phone call in walmart parking lot and had my son occupied with my Kindle and it died right in the middle of my call and it caused him to have a major melt down and I had to step out of the car to finish my phone call.
The time when my daughter got a bead stuck up her nose and I needed to keep her hands busy while we waited at the doctor for someone to pull it out. Of course my phone and iPad died!!!!!
I traveled to Kansas City for work and forgot the wall plug for my charger, I had to spend the whole week plugging my phone into my computer and that into the wall in order to charge my phone. It would take twice as long to charge each time and was such a hassle!
Recently while on an outing in Costa Rica, my boyfriend and I were both running different errands. I guess I forgot to charge my phone and I needed it for work as well as to contact him in case of emergency. Well a few work replies later and my phone was flat dead! I checked my normal backup battery but I had forgotten the connecting cable! Ughhh.
Of course this is a problem for work but if I would have gotten lost or anything else it could have been a catastrophe! Luckily nothing out of the oriordinary really happened. But that was the most recent stressful experience for me
We ran out of batteries during a two hour long wait at the dmv. I was digging fuzzy mints out of the bottom of my bag to keep them quiet by the end.
We ran out of battery when I and my 7.5 month old were traveling to NY by bus and the plug point was not working . My baby wanted to sleep but I couldn’t play the white noise on the phone which helps her to sleep and soothe her . Poor baby cried for 40 mins but I couldn’t help her in any way . Wish I had the charger and this would have not happened .
My daughter, who is two, and I flew from Virginia to Colorado to visit mine and my husbands family. The day we were supposed to leave, we were delayed and then cancelled. We sat in the airport for five hours before they cancelled our flight. Luckily, I kept the iPad charger in my purse and sat beside an outlet to make sure it stayed charged. The next day, we were back at the airport and were delayed again for four hours. At 9:00 pm she was out like a light and when we boarded the plane at 11:00pm she was wide awake. The iPad was only half charged because I forgot to put it back in my purse and left it at home. We made it halfway through our flight before it died and she couldn’t watch Frozen, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, or any other movie or game we had. It is now 1:30 am and I have a screaming toddler, a full airplane, people getting upset over her crying and screaming, and I’m in tears. Luckily the woman sitting beside is had three children and was trying to help me keep her calm and kept reassuring me everything will be ok. I’ve never had so many evil looks before in my life. I was appalled that people were upset with a two year old being upset on a plane with no where to run or play and it was in the middle of the night and she didn’t know what was going on. We are flying from Florida to Washington state this summer to visit my family again and I have already started planning on how to occupy her. Luckily, my husband will be going this time.