Distracted Driving

After a recent road trip to Utah alone with Kinley, I have decided that we should be less concerned with people texting while driving, and more concerned about cars that have one parent and at least one small child in them.  Let me just sum up my experience and see if anybody else agrees.

I wake up extra early to ensure that we can get on the road by 9:00 am.  I pack a nice selection of snacks, treats, toys, movies, and music to entertain Kinley.  We are loaded up and in the car by 9:15.  By about 9:45 we are in a major snow storm and the roads are bad.  At this point Kinley notices that we aren't going very fast and that mom seems to be concentrating extra hard on the roads.  So, of course, this would be the best time to become annoying and ask a million questions.  It starts out with a simple request, "I want some juice".  I reach into my bag to grab the sippy cup with juice while trying to keep my eyes on the road, then do the "go go gadget mom arm" trick I have learned and reach back to give her the juice.  Then she no longer wants to listen to the beautiful Mickey Mouse Club House music she had previously selected and launches into requesting movies she knows we don't have.  Finally, she wants to watch Monsters which we do have, then begins the ever so dangerous task of switching out the DVD player while driving (in a snow storm this is much worse).  Whew, she is quiet for awhile.  About 45 minutes later I heard some grunting sounds from the back seat and she announces that she has dropped her blankie and can't reach it.  Super.  I take a quick glance in my rear view mirror and I spot the blankie in the corner, luckily it is the only corner that my gadget mommy arm can reach.  Luckily, we are out of the snow now, but still, is it really safe to be reaching clear into the back seat for a blankie???  Definitely not.  Once the blankie has been retrieved, she mentions that she can't find Raffie either.  I tell her I can't see him and that mommy is driving and we will have to get Raffie when we stop for lunch.  Now she is mad at me and refuses to watch Monsters and insists that I put her music back on so we can "dance with the monkeys", meaning she wants to listen to the Disney CD, specifically The Jungle Book.  Once the CD is in place, she begins instructing me on how to dance with my shoulders.  Excellent, I have always wanted to know how to dance with my shoulders.  I then throw in an extra "whoa whoa" to the song and received a lecture on adding extra lyrics.  She said to me, "don't say whoa whoa.  There is no whoa whoa there.  Why would you do that?".

After a few movie changes and several uses of the mommy gadget arm to pass snacks back and forth, we arrived safely at our destination.  I am thinking that cars need to have some type of a mechanical claw device on the roof that you can maneuver around the car to retrieve items and pass things to you kids.  Or, maybe I will write to my local congressman and tell him that for the safety of others, it should be against the law to travel alone with a child.  Just a thought.

Kinley on Easter morning, she had a great time.