I have three kids. They love stories, but they hate long car rides. And we haven't yet succumbed to giving them their own iPods or personal gaming device, even though they have threatened to call child services about this travesty of justice.

Instead, we have discovered the key to peaceful, happy road trips: audio books. Having tried a lot of them, I thought I'd share our favorites. And when I say "our", I mean both the kids and the grown ups get caught up in these narratives, and the miles melt away until we seem to magically arrive at our destination, our familial relations in tact. Hope they keep your family rolling along as well....

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (audio CD, downloadable)
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (audio CD, downloadable)
James and the Giant Peach, particularly delightful due to the performance of Jeremy Irons (audio CD, downlodable)
My Father's Dragon (audio CD)
Magic Hoofbeats (Book and CD)
Barefoot Book of Faeries (Book and CD)

Incidentally, any Roald Dahl title is sure to be a winner. His characters and their voices and dialogue are a pure joy to listen to, for kids and parents alike.

Watching my kids' swim meet this past week, I couldn't help but wish that as adults, we approached life and the struggles we face like the 6 and under league. At a swim meet, there are the kids who are seemingly born to live in the water and can complete their cursory 25 meter lap in no time flat. And then there are the others who struggle, looking like they are half-drowning, who barely complete the race.

The remarkable thing is how the crowd responds. Everyone marvels at the naturals, whispering about Olympic hopes and at a minimum, college scholarships. But it's the kids who struggle...REALLY struggle...to just finish the lap, who get the standing ovations. And rightfully so; do you know how much more effort it takes to swim THAT badly?!

What if we treated our adult-selves with a little dose of that enthusiasm and support. Instead of shying away from the things that are hard and don't come naturally, we'd embrace the struggle and recognize and reward the courage and tenacity it takes to do things that, well, we kind of suck at.

If you are a parent or a people manager (two activities which I can say from experience are remarkably similar), do yourself a favor and check our Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. The title makes it sound like an airport gift shop "business optimization" snoozer, but in fact it's one of the more interesting reads about human psychology I've come across, and it's been highly influential in how I talk with my kids and my team members at work about facing and embracing challenge.

Of course, unless I want to be a compete hypocrite, this means I will have to face my own fears. Learn to use Excel. Take a statistics course. And agree to let my husband clean my clock in a game of Scrabble.

Audio books to the rescue!

The wisdom of swim teams