I am trying to decide the options of driving OTR and taking my son with me. If anyone can let me know if they know of a good company and their views. I have checked into homeschooling and at this point just looking for feed back

 

Here's a good recent thread for feedback about kids in trucks:

http://www.classadrivers.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=25732

Best advice you could take would be to "stay home." :?

 

I am a single driver, and carry my dog with me. While he most certainly is not a child, I can tell you there are plenty of days where I have sacrificed eating and sleep time to keep him entertained.

I am exhausted at times. My dog of course, will also lie down and go to sleep, a little more difficult to do with a 10 year old.

I don't believe what you are trying to do is feasible. I can understand wanting to make a better living for the two of you, but trust me, you don't have the time, or energy to homeschool and drive a truck.

 

Do yourself a favour, stay home for another 8yrs. He will be happier too.

 

I posted about this before but I will say it again, the best thing for a child is to have a normal, stable home life, kids need to have space to run around and play and have other children to play with and have a roof over their head everynight. The cab of a truck is no place for a child. I don't agree with this idea at all and I wouldn't do that to any child.

I don't know how much you know about this job and I don't think you realize what this job involves, it is a lot of work, you will be driving long hours, up to 11 hrs a day, what will your child be doing while you are driving. I can tell you that you will not have time to do home schooling. And we all know what truckstops are like and the kind of people who hang out in truck stops, where you would be eating and showering and most likely sleeping.

As a child I rode in the truck with my dad for occasional trips before I could even walk, and it really is not all that fun for a child, it gets very boring for a child after a while, those who have taken children for a long car ride know that. I would go with my dad for about a week and I would get restless from sitting all those long hours, there were only so many books I could read. Usually by the end of the trip I was just happy to get home.

If you want to drive for a living, take a local job and be home everyday for your child. Women who choose to have children should do what is best for their children and be home for them and be a mother. I believe that if a woman wants to drive OTR for a living they should either not have kids or wait until their kids are grown to do it.

 

I respect the fact that your wanting to make a good living for you and your child. .... Set aside the 'unnatural way' of living for a child on a truck all the time ..... Take in consideration the safety of the child .... after rolling down the hwys this PAST week alone ..... from Maine to Ohio - back to N.Jersy and now down to Mo. on my way to Tx ...... I have seen a tractor & trailer off in the woods that lost control on the ice ... another trailer on the side of the road that had rolled over and burned up .... another tractor and trailer that had jackknifed and the tractor is now trash .... this is and can be a very dangerous job .... We drive as safe as possible, but weather and the lack of safe driving on the part of the 4wheelers put Us in 'harms way' on a daily bases ...... Ask yourself, is it worth the safety of Your childs life to take him/her on the road daily? .... I think not ! ..... it's a crazy world out here on the road and getting worse each year ............. We have a new class of drivers coming on the road that think all we do is seat behind the wheel and aim that truck down the road .... it's hard work, stressful at times and dangerous. .....

Again .... I appreciate the fact that your wanting to make a good living for your child and you .... but it's not the world for a 'child' .... Try to find local work driving in the area you live and wait for several years to come to the road....

Good luck with what ever you decide to do.

 

mustang, I have been a driver for over 27 years now & was a single parent for 15 of them. Take it from me...a truck is NO place for a kid!

Kids need the stability of a REAL home...not in the jump seat of a truck! I stayed local till mine were teens then went regional after my oldest was 16, when I could be away ONE night then home the next. BUT, even then you must have an INCREDIBLY responsible child for that! My oldest is 26 now, and she recalls the long hours that I worked & the lack of quality time I was able to spend with her.

Trucking is no life for a child..trust me I know.

 

I do know the life of a trucker my father and husband both were one. I also know several people that drive now they tell me they have met several families living OTR with kids I was hoping one of those families would respond. This isn't a idea that just popped in my head and I am going for it. This is part of the research process and of the negetive things I hear have been already addressed. The danger on the road is there weather you drive OTR or just to town I am on the road 10 a day now and see my son little his schooling isnt really taught by teachers anymore it all done on the computer. The ones that I know that drives that know me personally says the situation would be better than we are in now. Yes I can change the situation and I am weather it be OTR or not if all you say is it cant be done then YOU wouldnt be able to do it but that doesnt mean someone else doesnt or cant. yes I have rode on a truck I have been in this life. As I was hoping someone that is doing it already respond even if by pm. Its funny because the posts are negitive but the private messages i get are encouraging and as they say its a matter of finding the right company. My mind isn't totally made up but it is getting there.

 

No one is saying it can't be done. Everyone is saying it SHOULDN'T be done.

Big difference.

Did you read that other thread? Do yourself and your child a HUGE favor and read through it. You're saying you have done your homework...I'd challenge you to call D.H.S. / Child Services if you want to do your homework. Tell them you want to know what their stance is on you raising your child in a truck and see what they say.

Not trying to be mean, just trying to make certain you are looking at the bigger picture. If you don't think that D.H.S. can put your child in a foster home if you do that, then you aren't looking at the bigger picture. If you don't think that people will not call you in for child neglect, you're again missing the bigger picture. They will...more times than you would want to know.

And when that happens, here's what you are looking at in the way of possible reasons from them for taking your child.

- Unfit parent...(you may not be, but try convincing them of that.)

- Unsafe home environment...(absolutely correct on that one)

- Child neglect... (sadly, they would be right on that one, too. Just you and your child...you working 14 hours a day...where on earth will you find the time to spend with your child, let alone homeschool them?)

The road is a great place to take your child on trips here and there. They get to see the country, see amazing things, experience the travel, etc. etc. But that's just a trip and they're heading home after it's over. Back to their friends, the stability of a roof overhead, a school, etc.

The road is a lousy place to spend their childhood. No friends, no social interaction, no exercise...trapped in a seat for 10 hours a day, eating truck stop meals or out of a cooler, dodging pee puddles in truck stop parking lots all over the country.

You've come back with a defensive attitude when several posters have pointed out your error in judgement, should you decide to do this. If you're just looking for people to back you up, you might get a few PM's that do so. But the majority of people will come right out and tell you WHY it's such a terrible idea.

It's not that you're a bad person, it's that you are not thinking this through. And if you do it, you better get used to people thinking you are a bad person, because that is exactly what will happen. Right, wrong, or indifferent, you'll experience outright hostility out there when other drivers realize that your child is living in the truck with you.

 

Indeed I agree with everyone else, picture being in a jail cell for 15 hours a day. No friends, no social life, not being able to see kids his age. Whew talk about stressful. He only is a child once, let it be happy and free. =). I mean most people that are below the age of 12 and in a car for that matter. use the famous line. Are we there yet? and kids can get really antsy <- if that's even spelt right. can't check without the spell checker thing lol anyways. Thats my 2 cents =D