A Peaceful Morning Commute :: Is That Possible?
Why is the commute so bad?! Every morning?
Is it because they’re close in age?
Is it a conversation left over from the night before, and they felt it was needed to be hashed out AGAIN before making it to school?
Seriously, my kids come up with the craziest things to argue about on the way to school every.single.morning.
Like for real — unless three out of four are sleeping on the way to school, they’re going to find something to argue about.
“Hey you can’t sit there; that’s my seat!” “Stop breathing on me!” Then another child whines chimes in, “Give that back to meeeeee!”
I’m working hard to get my road rage under control (for real, y’all!), and then trying to drown them out with the radio all at the same time. It’s a lot to handle first thing in the morning. But of course that never works either. They always seem to increase their volume with the radio. Then the radio is too loud and hurting their ears, and they start complaining about that. O.M.G. It’s just too much. I mean, can I get an Amen from some other Mamas, or am I literally the only one who deals with this?
Or it’s the classic, “She’s looking out my window!” Are you serious? Double sigh. Here we go. So I say, you look out your window, you look out yours and you there, the one in the middle, you look out the front window! I feel like Oprah, but no one’s getting anything, except being yelled at.
And the best ones: “STOP touching me!” , “STOP kicking my seat!”, “STOP laughing at me!”
Didn’t we just finish our morning prayers? What in the world happened?! Clearly we need to add praying over our morning commute to our list. Makes me think — what did my mom do when we were growing up? Honestly, I don’t think we argued like this. For one reason, most of the time, we were in a car too small to argue about someone looking out windows. (Shoot, no one had a window!) And we were all touching, packed like sardines in my daddy’s Ford Probe. That’s gotta be it — they have too much space in this amazing mini van. Or maybe I’m lacking on making it fun. Growing up we would play “car games” like “That’s My Car” or “I Spy.”
I’ve tried though. I really have. But somehow “I Spy” turns into a spat.
Finally, we make it to school and ya’ll — you won’t believe it. Or maybe you will. Because there’s been a shift! Hand in hand the kids are now laughing! They’re skipping up to the school together, yelling back, “bye Mama!” as if this has been the best ride to school ever! O.M.G. AGAIN. What just happened?
It’s the van. It’s got to be…
Please, give me ideas for a peaceful morning commute — is that possible?! For more than one day??
