A couple weeks ago the weather was very cold and Kate had a croupy cough, so I decided to drive Claire to school. I'm pretty sure driving, parking, and then walking her in takes about twice as long as walking. By the time I buckle everyone into car seats, drive the longer way around because the shortcut to the school is only a footpath, fight the traffic, hunt down a parking spot, park, get everyone out of car seats, avoid getting run over by all the other cars as I haul everyone into the school, get Claire inside, then do the whole process in reverse, it's just not worth the "convenience" of driving. (Do any other moms feel like life can be summarized as one long process of buckling and unbuckling car seats???) So because driving and parking takes longer and STILL involves dragging a way too heavy Kate through the elements, we went with the car drop off line.
It is a testament to my love for my daughter that I was willing to brave the car drop off line. If it was just me, I would SO rather walk in the freezing-butt cold than idle my minivan as I creep along in the car drop off line. I cannot adequately express the rage of watching other cars cut in front of me in line just because they live off a street that intersects with the line somewhere further up. Not cool. Rage. Oh the rage. I guess I have issues...
Anyway, the point of all this came when we FINALLY got the the front of the line. The school has some of the 5th graders help out at the car drop off. One of the things they often do is help open and shut car doors for the little kids getting out of their cars. So one of the helper girls walks up to my van's sliding passenger door and gives the handle a little tug.
Nothing happens.
So she tries again with another little tug.
Again, nothing.
She just stands there looking stumped.
You see, I'm a cheap skate and I didn't pay for automatic doors on my van. I know, we're crazy, right? Another kid finally came over and pulled the door open the good old fashioned way that actually takes *gasp* some effort. Thank goodness that second 10 year old kid was so resourceful or my little 5 year old Claire might have had to show those big kids up and open the door herself!
5 comments:
I didn't know they made mini-vans these days that didn't come with auto-door opening powers. But I don't know much about mini-vans.
My niece (8) and nephew (6) were totally captivated a few months ago by our car's manual windows. They took turns rolling them down.
We have the same problem, daily!!! It's even better when they don't know how to shut the door, and I have to pull over, get out of the car and reshut it myself. I was thinking about posting instructions on Kaitlyn's door, but instead I opted to have Kaitlyn climb into the front seat when we get to the front of the line and open, and shut the door herself.
Heather, YES!!!
I forgot to mention the fact that they NEVER shut the door all the way. Fortunately it's shut enough that it doesn't come open again and we live close enough to the school that I just don't worry about it until I get home - except for cursing the little indicator light on my dashboard the whole drive home!
I'm actually amazed that they let the school kids help. Personally, I wouldn't want some stranger even touching my car, much less opening the doors and looking inside. You'd think it'd be a liability for the school to let the kids do that, for fear that some parent would accidently run over their foot, or would sue the school when their kid fell out because the door wasn't closed right.
I was thinking the same thing as Matthew as I read this, "how did that get past the lawyers?" and, "nobody complained about greasy kids touching their car?"
Maybe that comes from living up in the Great Northleft for too long. People must be more neighborly in Texas.
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