Live in the Minivan Lane

Life in the Minivan Lane began when we moved forty minutes from our kids’ school…but kept the kids at that school. You do the math–if the day only involves taking Catie to and from school, we’re in the Van about one hundred and sixty minutes a day. And that’s if the twins and I only drop her off, drive home, pick her up four hours later, and drive back home. Again.

My personal policy is to never make the forty-minute trip without at least one other errand tacked on. The post office or cleaners or…a a stop at Sonic for a Diet Cherry Limeade. Really, anything with a drive-thru. Because the worst part of living in a minivan is not the living, but the hauling out three kids, walking across a parking lot filled with other minivan moms who learned to drive from some kamikaze school, and trying to herd the kids (cats) into a cart. And then back into their car seats.

Because, as things like this go, everyone has their issues about buckling into their car seats. Sam and Ellie have developed the opinion that one of the car seats “hurts.” So, the blue car seat is the only one acceptable without tears. My strategy is to make them take turns crying in the black seat (I know, Mother of the Year) while the other one gloats in the pain-free blue one. Before you suggest that we just replace the painful black seat, know that I am confident it doesn’t hurt. These are kids who can imagine owies in the most unlikely places (“Mommy, my hair hurts today.”) Justifying the Black Car Seat Hatred would only fuel their imaginations that everything “hurts.”

Catie has graduated from the five-point harness chair to a booster seat in the back of the Van. No one can stretch out the act of walking four steps and pulling on a seat belt like Catie. Not only does she have to break up the Blue/Black Car Seat discussion between the twins, she also must pause to draw a picture on the pads of paper she’s accumulated on her seat, dig out any fries from our lunch at JITB, and begin discussions about which CD we’ll listen to.

Next year the kids’ schools will be closer to home, which should help. Although, according to Moms who have gone before me, my chauffeuring days are just starting. Just this month we added gymnastics to our schedule, and I’ve already noticed the credit card charges to JITB and Sonic have increased.

I guess I should enjoy this time. Before we know it, the twins will be in booster chairs too, and the process of buckling in will surely shrink from twenty minutes to ten. What will I do with all my extra time?

Of course, we’ll have a new baby to add to the mix.