Interesting meltdown solution

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My mom says that when I was 4 or so and had really bad meltdowns she'd simply pick me up, strap me in the car seat, and go for a drive. This was in the 70s and the car was a 1971 AMC Ambassador with a 360 V8 engine, a big rumbling dinosaur car. And I would calm right down, and go to sleep. Then she'd drive home and put me to bed. The funny thing is, whenever I'm agitated now, I'll simply get in my car and drive aimlessly, and eventually I calm down. I've never heard of anybody else being calmed this way.

That's exactly what my Dad used to do to calm me down when I was a kid. It was the only way they could get me to sleep for over a year. One of my earliest memories is lying across the back seat, feeling the thrum of the engine, and the noise sinking into me, and gradually conking out.

Nowadays I get a similar vibratory sensation by sitting playing guitar with it up close to my chest, but though the vibrations are similarly soothing, it's not quite the same thing.

After we lost the car (long story) they tried all sorts of other methods... in the end what worked was stringing blinking Christmas lights above my bed. But I don't remember them. I do remember the car.

My mom would do that, too, although this was in the 1980s.

When I'm agitated I get in my car and drive. I almost always drive the same path, but rarely might take another path.

My mom told me the same thing. She said whenever the car would stop at traffic lights, I would start crying again. Driving was one of the only things that would calm me down. That and this little stuffed frog which I remember vividly.

Never tried that, but I've heard of this b4

A common pratice in my family, they did it with me and I do that with my daughter.

My dad and I seem to do this often in order to escape my mom's yelling. It causes alot of quick and easy meltdowns whenever she gets upset with us over the slightest thing.

My little brother was difficult to calm down as a baby, and my mother used to take him for car rides to calm him down. I also like going for rides in the car; it's very relaxing.
I have a cousin (related through my mother's marriage, not an actual blood relation) who is severely autistic and ret*d, and she absolutely loves being driven around in the car. My mother used to babysit her, and they spent ages driving around.

My parents did this to get me to fall asleep for my nap.

That's interesting, I used to sneak out of my room at night and lie on the carpeted floor outside my parents ensuite when my mum was having a shower, and feel the vibrations through the floor. This was very calming to me, and I often fell asleep.

My parents took me for rides to get me to sleep.