Wil Wheaton, yes, that Wil Wheaton, posted a great piece about his recent experience camping.

Long story short? Wil takes family camping. Discovers that the campground has Wifi. Watches kid glued to a PS2, rather than playing with the gaggle of other kids all around him. Laments. Wonders. Writes.

One thing he mentioned that strikes a chord with me – parents that have the DVD player going in the car for taking junior to the mall, the supermarket, church, or whatever. Can’t your kid spend 10 minutes apart from animated fantasyland? Mine can. Heck, our minivan has a DVD player in it. We’ve never turned it on in front of the kids. In fact, I’ve only ever turned it on once to test it. Why get it? The van already had it installed.

It gets worse. A couple of months back, Heather went to Target, with Alex in tow. She encountered this lady pushing her 2-ish year old kid around in the cart, complete with an elaborate rig of entertainment. The child safely seated in the cart, strapped into the shopping cart seat liner to keep the germs away (come on, what mom doesn’t have a stack of wipes the size of your head stashed away?) along with a carefully attached portable DVD player playing the Backyardigans for the kid.

Come on people, don’t you think junior can stand to spend an hour away from Pablo and Tyrone? Think back to when you were a kid, back in the days before the DVD. What did you do to occupy the time at the store? Played with a small toy? Read a book? Used your imagination? Amazing how we didn’t need portable DVD players plastered on our shopping carts.

Nice job Wil.