Once upon a time, long time ago, before children, I used to laugh when Cara’s mom would say “if we’re going to get there by 5, then we have to be ready to go at 4. By the time we get out the door and put on our seatbelts and drive there . . . “
STOP! Put on our seatbelts? How freakin’ long does it take to put on seatbelts and why does it need its own line item?
This cracks me up now, only for different reasons. Seatbelts take a long, long time to get on in my house. And even longer if it’s cold outside. And sure enough when getting everyone to school in the morning, I have to factor in about 8 full minutes of getting everyone into the car and putting on seatbelts.
I wish I could say this was a new thing, but the first winter we spent in Sweden (Alex was about 20 months and Anna was 4) I spent months fighting with him about keeping his jacket while in the car seat. Why? It wasn’t that I really cared about him having it on in the car. It was the added step of taking it off before getting into the seat and putting it on after—all while balancing my baby and some other ad hoc items. I was soon known to just sprint from the mall/grocery store with him unjacketed (bad mom!) just to avoid the fight. Who knew that four years later I’d be having this same fight with both kids!
The car seat battle is a daily one…often more than once a day. Both kids get in at their pace. They don’t want you to put them in the car, they must climb in themselves. Sometimes there are limbs still sticking out of the car while they’re getting in. They’ll find a cool toy on the floor or hang from the handle. They especially like to do this when it’s raining,and I’m still standing outside getting wet and cold while trying to herd them in. Then they climb into the car. Sometimes they are hanging upside down from their car seats. Yes, they actually really do this. Sometimes they turn on all the interior lights. Sometimes they jump into the back part of the car. Super fun.
Once they are in their seats, you’d think we’d be almost there. If they are wearing summer clothes, then we are. Both kids get in, buckle themselves in on their own, and we’re good. (Reminder: it did take us 8 minutes to get from the door to this point.) If it’s cold out, and they have sweaters, coats, rain jackets, etc., that somehow necessitates them shedding layers for our very brief journey. This is super fun when it’s raining like today because when we get to our destination, I have to stand there in the rain and negotiate which pieces of outwear need to be on. All of them!
I was sure this car loading and unloading would get easier with time. It hasn’t. I think actually prefer when everyone is just strapped in and can’t do and undo their own car seats.
Ha, the car loading is becoming a chore for us too. My husband thought it was cute to let my toddler climb into his car seat by himself, me not so much. Now he wants to do it himself or else and it's not pretty.
Posted by: Casey | Nov 17, 2008 at 01:24 PM
Hahaha, I love this. I have 3 kids, ages 3 1/2, 2, and 6 months, I'm a total "baby buncher". I hate putting all the kids in the car by myself. My sister-in-law laughed at me one day, when I left the library 10 minutes before her, and when she got out to her car, with her 1 daughter (we were parked next to each other), I was still working on getting everyone in their seats and buckled. That is probably the worst part about going anywhere with all of them.
Posted by: Lois | Nov 26, 2008 at 02:57 PM