kids in trucks

[mereman]

I have a question that I have not been able to get a answer from anyone on.
Does anyone know if you can have two children, ages 5 and 10 in your truck. I want to take them on the road. I want to buy the large 120in condo and hire out. My wife will be getting her CDL and we home school.
I get different answers from each company about their o/o policies. I do not think anyone really knows.
Thanks

[Sonny Pruitt]

its no place for children

that is a dumb idea

its child abuse

[Mackman]

its no place for children

that is a dumb idea

its child abuse

I agree

[jacob]

It would probably be better for the kids if they stayed at home with their mother while you were out on the road. It would be too stressful to bring your wife and two kids along. I think if you took one kid at a time along for a week while they have a break from school it would be fine, but not to have them spend their childhood in the cab of a truck.

[mereman]

To each,ect.
Lots of things are abuse! Ignoring your kids in the name of whatever.
Loving your kids , caring for them, educating them, is not abuse.
If someone has some constructive comments great. If not you can keep the negative judgments to yourself as I am not interested. Thanks

[serbie]

To each,ect.
Lots of things are abuse! Ignoring your kids in the name of whatever.
Loving your kids , caring for them, educating them, is not abuse.
If someone has some constructive comments great. If not you can keep the negative judgments to yourself as I am not interested. Thanks

Not sure if anyone said anything negative about your question. Just answered honestly.

Personally I feel most people are correct. A truck, no matter how big the bunk is isn't a place for children to grow up. The occasional trip one at a time is a great idea. But not as a place to live. If your in financial hardships you should seek help at home. If this is not your predicament, not sure why you'd want to subject your family to the hardships of the road. If you and your wife want to team, wait until the kids are grown up and out of the house. I don't agree taking your family on the road is the best idea.

[devildice]

I would assume that it's going to be an insurance liability for companies.

[mereman]

I understand what you are saying Jacob. The situation I am in at this time precludes this. I know the situation in truck is not ideal. It also is not a long term plan, but for about a year it is the best.
If anyone has any info on any companies I would appreciate the help immensely.
Thanks again.

[Sabine]

Having driven team for several years I can only tell you from my point of view that this is not a good idea. More often than not I had to make a choice whether I really wanted to eat of just go to sleep. Shower or eat, you get the drift. I was too tired to take care of myself properly. This was not every day, but it happened regularly. Driving team involves one of you sleeping while the other one drives.

When you get hired as a team, you are expected to work as such. It leaves very little time for things like home schooling, taking care of the kids and such.

I met one family with 2 little kids in a truck and thought how sad it was for them. While mom and dad tried their best, with toys, movies books etc, the kids still didn't look all that happy.

I get cooped up in the truck, the dog gets antsy, but we have to keep going to make the delivery, the pick up or whatever. My dog has to suffer at times, even though I sacrifice sleep time for playing and walking several times a day. I can't imagine putting a child through that.

Good luck with your plans, but if at all possible you may look for a different way to work things out.

[yellowcabbill]

Wow-you need to think this through. I have had several of my own businesses and the big mistake my wife and I made was our children were around and in the business ALL THE TIME. This is very hard after the kidoos get past 2 to 3 years old. They are active, want to play with friends and the list goes on. Today my oldest harbors such resentment we barely have a relationship. Trust me if you're looking at keeping the most important two things in your life in the sleeper of truck there will be issues when they are in the teen years and early 20's. Better are the thoughts posted here, make it a special trip yearly for each one. Find a cozy little apartment in a cozy little town for the wife and kids and read Steve Booth's and Tootie and DH's adventures to get tips on making money. The stuff that GMAN and Rank post is like an industry instruction book, but please don't go into "family" trucking. The bad result will surface in the years ahead. (wow said way to much, sorry) Bill

[person]

My wife will be getting her CDL and we home school.
I get different answers from each company about their o/o policies. I do not think anyone really knows.
Thanks

What does this mean? That you both would be drivers and driving team for a company? Or that your wife would be the only driver? It would be SO much easier to only have one driver with a 5 and a 10 year old on board. Because otherwise one adult is driving and one is sleeping. The company will be ALWAYS trying to run you hard and long. It would be much more do-able to take the four of you out if there was one driver at a time. Then there is at least some normal schedule. You would have only a 14 hour max work day and would be able to bathe them and let them out for a little while. And there would be one adult to babysit and organize the kids during the day. I don't know what the company rules would be about this if it was your own truck. Seems you should be able to find a company that didn't care all that much about what you do in your own truck. If it were me I would just keep looking until I found one. I know for me there is an optional insurance thing I can buy. It is a guarantee that my insurance company will pay for all the medical on my passengers if they are injured. You might want to find out about that and offer to pay for that when you inquire about leasing on at places.

[mereman]

Thanks for all the replies.
I hear what you are all saying; and I do appreciate your concerns. This is not a spur of the moment thought o my part. I will continue to think things out and look into alternatives.
Thanks again and I do appreciate.

[coastie]

I seen t\Husband and Wives teams with their kids. I personally see no problem. But in todays world everything is a Crime dealing with your own Kids. Gee if you punish them your abusing them. I can see people being concern if your were Sexually abusing them, or Beating them across the head with a baseball bat, but I never been harmed cause I got punished with a switch or a belt. I learn a leason. But to day time you go to jail.

Todays kids are more into video gamesa and while your driving they will be playing games, seeing america learning alot more than they will in a class room. Today schools do not teach what our kids needs to know, but only what they want them to know, and most of it turning out to be false information any way.

There is alot of pros and cons, but the finial word is with you. Since your home schooling them, I see no problem my self. It is not abuse, far from it.

[Shawnee]

Because I have experience riding in the truck as a child I want to give a kids point of view. My brother and I rode with our father on many occasions in the truck, I can tell you that it is not all fun, most of the time we were bored to death. We didn't get to really see the country except for what we saw out the window at about 65 mph, and that got boring after a while.

There were only so many books we could read (no video games back then), and we got tired of sitting for such a long time, We never had the time to stop and do things. Some of the places we went didn't allow children, so we had to hide in the bunk. And this was only for about a week riding in the truck, I couldn't imagine doing it all the time.

Anyone considering raising a family in a truck should reconsider. Children need space to run around and play, especially children of that age. Children need friends to play with. Being couped up in a truck is no place for a child, believe me your children will get tired of it. An occasional trip is fine, but not long term.

It would be nice if people actually answered his question. He's not asking for advise on raising children!! Keep in mind, people who are allowed to home school are no dummies themselves!!!

[Shawnee]

Well I can't answer his question because I don't know any companies that allow it, I know my company doesn't allow it and they don't allow children under 11 years old to ride in the truck. I am just concerned for the children, there are far too many children nowdays that are overweight, from lack of exercise and too many video games.

[Rev.Vassago]

It would be nice if people actually answered his question. He's not asking for advise on raising children!! Keep in mind, people who are allowed to home school are no dummies themselves!!!

People who home school don't keep their children in an 8 foot by 8 foot box all day.

The question has been answered already. There are no major companies that would allow this, as it is an insurance liability nightmare.

[wot i life]

You say your kids are 5 and 10.
I took my daughters, aged 4 and 6 on a three hour drive in a truck and it couldn,t end quickly enough. A great error on my part. Motion sickness, repeatedly needing the toilet, boredom, arguing, etc. etc. etc.
I swear, if my daughters couldn,t drive I would never have made it home.......No seriously though, you have a lot to consider. It would be folly to go on the road with your kids. Please reconsider :wink:

[Sonny Pruitt]

not an issue of home schooling
people do it every day
no problem

a trucking environment
(just look who/what sits in a truckstop every day
dirty toilets,dirty showers,pee all over the parking lot,)
is no place for children on a daily basis

and if you think it is bad on a few forum answers
just think of the grief he will get from people
on the road
including do gooders calling the authorities

[Twilight Flyer]

Several posters said it best. A truck is no place to raise a child, much less a couple of them. That is perhaps also one of the reasons that most major companies will not allow it, either. Not only is it an insurance nightmare due to the potential legal liability, but it also does not reflect well on a company that allows it.

You are hearing a lot of reasons why you should not do it...you would do well to listen to those people. Should you actually do this, the chances of you losing your children due to a lack of a safe and stable home environment are a lot greater than you might think. Child Services will not even hesitate to put them in foster care, should they find out what's going on. I have seen it happen to some of the best-intentioned people out there, with the exact same plans as you have.