Disclosure: This post is produced as a member of the Netflix Canada Stream Team. I will occasionally receive product and perks to facilitate my posts however all opinions are my own.
As any parent of autistic children can tell you, sometimes travelling with autistic kids can be a rather difficult chore. We had done many short little trips in the past. Somewhere close enough that we could go, spend the day and return. Ideally without our son missing his bed or without spending to long away from the house.
As he was growing up we were noticing that he was getting better and better at these trips. We had given the kids tablets, basically slowly upgrading them over time from kids tablets and we were starting to realize something. They had relatively cheap tablets whose battery lasted a couple hours at best. Our son would last until his tablet ran out but then he wanted to go home.
On a whim as it was getting near to summer we actually decided to upgrade the tablets to ones that had a 10 hour battery. This would allow for a long drive. So we decided to test it out. Again, he went till the battery died before demanding to go home. At this point he was about 10 years old and the only trip of any distance he had been on was when we left Toronto where he was born to return to my childhood home in NB. My wife and I had done a lot of travelling before this and we really enjoyed it.
So we started planning. Now of course as with all autistic kids, you don’t spring something like this on them. So we started talking to him about the fact that we were going to go and spend a few days in the hotel for the summer. He was largely indifferent, however the idea seemed to be accepted. As long as he could take his tablet.
On The Road With Netflix
So the first year, there were no downloaded movies available yet. However we had a lot of games on the tablets, plus some books and off we went to Ontario. The trip was fairly successful and we had a lot of fun. We decided to do it again but the second year, Netflix had introduced downloadable movies and shows. We topped up the kids tablets with as many shows and movies as it could hold (100 episodes is the limit, and size is only limited by the amount of storage on your tablet) This made the trip so much easier still. Our kids started asking us to update certain shows, adding new ones as we deleted what they watched and this became a good pattern.
We now love to travel with Netflix on our tablets. The only downside we have run into is that we are limited to 4 devices that we can download on, and we are a family of five. However as Netflix is constantly adjusting their products to meet demand, I am certain that will not remain a problem for long.
Darlene Schuller says
this is definitely everything a person needs when taking a road trip! I can’t hardly remember they no interenet no dvd players in the vehicles days!
kathy downey says
Yes Netflix can certainly make a road trip more enjoyable,awe i remember the days when i was young we just tormented each other lol
Silvia D says
would keep everyone entertained!
Elizabeth Matthiesen says
I love Netflix but I’ve only ever watched it on TV. Heavens limited to only 4 devices, that is definitely not enough – there’d have been war in our vehicle as we have 7 kids – guess I should say had since they’re all now adults, lol
Jennifer Wilson says
I love the fact that you can now download you shows.
SHIRLEY says
this is a good idea for long trips
jan says
it is so awesome that you can download now!
Elaine Buonsante says
Great strategy for travelling with kids and especially with those with special needs. I’ll pass your experience on to my niece who has a son with autism. Thanks for sharing.
nicky says
Downloadable shows are super handy, because there is not always reliable wifi on the road.