As a mom of two junior high students, I spend a lot of time driving.
Beyond being tiring, this is getting expensive. Gas prices shot up to over $4 per gallon at the gas station down the street yesterday. I drove past the station at one point, the price was $3.93. Two hours later, it was 10 cents more per gallon.
What market forces cause a 10 cent hike in two hours? Highway robbery by the oil corporations, I think.
But that’s not my point…
Yesterday, while the kids were at school, I drove to my neighborhood Bible study, then on to the health club (yes, I’m aware of the irony), then to do some shopping. I came home and worked for a few hours.
When my son got home from school, I drove him to the orthodontist. From there, I dropped him at my husband’s office, where my friend Jo (who was also driving her kids on various errands) picked him up. I drove over to my daughter’s school to see her track meet, but I missed her event because I was late.
I stood and talked to the other parents, and watched their kids run, since I’d missed my own kid’s race. One friend’s kid came from behind to win a relay. I found myself yelling at him as he ran: “Go, go, go! Push it!” I thought about it later. What on earth was I doing? I had been hurrying for so much of the day that I felt compelled to tell everyone else to hurry? I don’t know. I felt like Lila Doolittle in My Fair Lady, when she goes to the horse race. I’m a little nervous that his dad caught my overly enthusiastic encouragement on video tape. Sigh.
From the track meet, I drove Melanie home, fed her some leftover mac and cheese while she did homework and changed from track clothes to her soccer uniform. I then drove her to a soccer game. Where I watched the game with some of the same parents who had been at the track meet. We talked about driving, about the price of gas. About how crazy our lives feel when we seem to divide our time between the car and the sidelines of a sporting event.
We live in a driven culture. A driving culture. One in which we pretty much have to drive to get our kids to places where they can exercise, which is ironic. My daughter’s school is more than 7 miles away—and there is no easy way to ride your bike or walk there (she goes to the public school). Depending on where her games on, soccer can be five miles away, or, as it will be this Saturday, 55 miles away.
Three weeks from this weekend, soccer season, track season and school will be over. Our kids are not signed up for anything this summer—so I don’t have to drive them anywhere. Both will be working—babysitting, mowing lawns, helping my husband at his office. They’ll ride bikes to friends’ homes, to the Dairy Queen, to the park. But I won’t have to drive them anywhere. Which means, hopefully, we can all be a little less driven.
(Here’s how I’d rather be driving–on vacation in a convertible instead of a minivan!!)
9 Comments
Put me in the convertable with you, girl!
My husband has been talking about getting a convertible ( i think he’s in a pre-midlife crisis!) i told him we can test drive one on vacation next month (and hope that satisfies for a while - LOL!)
This gas stuff is crazy. I wish I could bike where I need to go.
I live in a cold climate (it’s barely hitting 60 today) so a convertible is sort of pointless. But that photo was taken in Calif. in Feb. –it wasn’t really warm enough to have the top down but we didn’t care!
my mini-van has 131,000 miles on it. The dog always rides in the back seat, and no matter how much you vaccum it, you can still tell. not exactly a glamorous ride.
Yep, I’ve got one of those mini-vans myself and mine has nearly 135,000 miles on it. I spent $80.00 on gas to travel to my son’s college on Sunday to bring his stuff home (he needed to stay behind and take a final) and ended up chauffeuring my other teens around for 2 days with all his stuff (smelly stuff I might add–his dormroom reeked and I prayed it wasn’t his stuff, but I soon found out…)crammed in the back overflowing into the third and second seats. It was Sanford and Son on wheels. I could hardly wait until my son got home Tuesday night. I made him unload it. It was HIS stuff after all.
Anyhow, driven sure sums it up. I’m pooped!
My kids are taking the summer off as well. And their schools are too far to bike, with no sidewalks anyway. So I welcome the summer volunteer position my daughter has at the library - within walking distance of our house.
And WOOHOO to the end of school!!!
Only three more weeks of carpooling, and then I’m going to make the kids ride bikes everywhere!
A friend of mine had this great site on her blog the other day:
http://www.walkscore.com/
you type in your address and it gives you a “walk score”–how easy it is to walk to things like stores, schools, and so on. My grade was 55 out of 100. (we’ve got stores, restaurants and a library within a mile)
my kids’ grade school is easy to ride bikes to, but the weather is so bad they usually take the bus.
I rode my bike to the strip mall, with the dog, today. Talk about an adventure!
You could always get a motorcycle like I did! Vrrroooom!!
Tomorrow I will drive three girls to a soccer game 50 miles away. I don’t think a motorcycle would work for that.
JUST KIDDING!
But once I have my mid-life crisis, maybe I’ll get one.
You ARE really driving around! I remember those days…
I just paid 3.59 per gal and wondered why all the pumps were full. It was the lowest price in town. That was a God thing since I don’t watch the gas stations and drive all over town to get a good deal.