I don’t mind driving for an hour to take my kids somewhere fun. This is not (only) because I am a dedicated mother who wants her children to experience life outside of downriver, but also because I have two kids who are great in the car and sometimes mommy likes a break.
Since I am off work for the summer I have made the adjustment from full-time teacher to full-time mommy (which actually are similar jobs except I can’t beat my students and they don’t respond well to time-outs).
Being at home alone with two kids all day can make me a little stir crazy. So we usually get out of the house early morning until early afternoon to break it up our day a little bit and ensure we are home by the kids joint nap time so I can do something adult-like, even if it is just reading e-mails or magazines--uninterrupted.
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Once or twice a week I pick somewhere a little bit further of a drive so that I can have some quiet time in the morning to myself. This is how it works.
Matthew, for whatever reason, is what we call a “carpolectic” (sort of like narcoleptic, but only in the car) and dozes off as soon as I put it in drive (and often before) so there is no whining from his end. Ryann will get a little talkative at first, but since the only place she can still have her pacifier besides bed (I know, I know, but she is going to need braces anyway) is the car, and she will take that and doze off usually, as well. So it is just me, my drive-thru coffee (still hot), and whatever I want to listen to on the radio (right now I am loving Prime Country on Sirius).
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I really, really love my kids, but I am sick of playing “open the laptop” with Matthew (a game he insists on by bringing me his toy laptop 1000 times a day so that I can open it and then he can take it from me, slam it shut, and hand it back--it’s like water torture) to the point where I hurry and run out of the room whenever I see him coming towards me with it.
And to be honest, Ryann? No, I don’t want to read “Do Princesses Have Best Friends Forever?” for the 900th time. You know the words by heart, why don’t you read it to me?
So until this dang opens in , we will continue to take mini road trips whenever we can--after all, Southfield Road with one lane is still less stressful than trying to entertain two toddlers at home all day.
