this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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me_irl
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I heard of a phenomenon where babies fall asleep in cars so people used to drive around their cars to put their babies to sleep.
I know a baby's night's sleep is priceless but how much does it actually price for?
I was given a small cradle that vibrated and made a similar sort of white noise.
It was wonderful.
If you drive a reasonable mileage car of about 25-30 mpg then a quick 30 minute drive should cost about a gallon of gas. Should be enough to get the baby to sleep. So would a new parent pay $5ish to sleep? If they have the money absolutely.
Of course once you start getting into the stupidly large vehicles that are 12 mpg the math starts to shift
That's so weird to wrap my head around, over here we use a reversed ratio for mileage: number of liters per 100km. So the lower the number, the better the mileage
I was one of those babies, my mom would call my dad (divorced) to drive me around the block to make me fall asleep. I did not get my license until I was 45, the first time I took a drive just for fun, I instantly felt the calmness envelope me. It's like all my troubles were staying quiet suddenly. I have AuDHD and the motion and concentration on outside stuff has such a calming effect it's crazy. If I could I would spend my days driving around. Unfortunately driving jobs don't pay well.
Long haul truck drivers can make good money, especially if you own the truck.
When I was a parent of a child that fit that age group, I'd have easily spent $5-10 some nights... exhaustion is real.
My kid didn't really fall asleep THAT easy though.
Apparently my sister would often scream all night until she was taken for a car ride. We were poor, too, so gas was precious even back then. Remember--our cars got under 20mpg. It added up quickly.
20mpg is 11,7 l/100km which is double that of a "normal" car
I assume that’s a US mpg to L/100km it looks more generous than my average 12.7L/100 on a VR6 VAG engine, it’s doing about 22 UK mpg. (35UK/30US on the motorway/highway)
I think it's the even roar aka white noise
Unpredictable rocking motion as well