Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Round Trip Unstated Agreement

We have two cars in our family.   The first car is great for families with small children and is sometimes referred to as a "minivan".   I love our minivan.   It drives well and makes toting two toddlers around a relatively easy job.   It gets messy (because toddlers are a mess) because that's part of its job.    I've said many times before, but I really don't see a downside to having a minivan.

The second car we have is a Tesla Model S.   It is sexy.  It is smooth.  It is fun to drive and it remains spotless inside because children with sticky hands, full of crumbs in their pockets and mulch in their shoes, aren't allowed in it.   It's a dream to drive.  

On any given day, depending on what the situation is, I might be driving one or the other.   The decision on which car my husband or I leave in is completely and totally dependent on who will be taking or picking up the children.  It's almost always an obvious division of driving.

But later in the day, say after pickup at school, we might all meet for lunch somewhere.   In those cases, one of us arrives with two children and a minivan.  The other one gets to the restaurant in a sleek, black Tesla Model S.  After lunch (or other spot where we've met in two cars) there is never a discussion on who will be driving what car home.   We've never discussed it at the time or at any time.  

It's the unstated rule that you finish your trip in the vehicle you arrived in.  If you have two tired, dirty and screaming children and a minivan after a long day, you will have those two cranky kids all the way home in the minivan at which point the other one of us will sweep in and help do anything needed to get the children into the house and tub to get them un-sticky and into bed.

The person who arrived in style in the Tesla Model S finishes off their drive in quiet comfort, listening to music on a nice sound system, blissfully unaware that there are screaming kids in the car in front of them.  

It's an unspoken agreement we have.   I'm not unhappy about it either.  It works well for us.

The Big Boy Update:  KILL.   My son is saying some very hateful things.   Specifically, he's saying he wants to kill you, or the dog or the sharks or his teacher.   He says it with a lot of vehemence.   We have been very worried about where he got the use of the word from.   Tonight I had a conversation with his teacher because she heard it at school too.   Neither she nor we have an answer, but we're working through it.   I don't think he really understands what it means, but we're helping him find better things to say when he's angry or frustrated.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Sssting Stop.  My daughter has a bad reaction to mosquito and insect bites.   I have something called Sssting Stop I put on her bites that help calm down the histamine reaction and reduce itching.  I didn't realize she knew what the tube looked like until she opened the drawer the other day, exclaimed, "I see the pow pow!" (baby powder) and then came over with the Sssting Stop in her hand, telling me she had a bug bite.

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