Emotional Support Sisters

It’s funny as life marches on you slowly forget things from the past, until something triggers the memory. 

This week I was reminded how hard car travel can be with littles, especially when everyone in the car is neurodivergent. 

The first trigger was when my mom called and said she was coming to my house early because she couldn’t handle loading and unloading the 2 grandkids (toddler and baby aged) again just to load them up and bring them to my house. It reminded me how much I hated taking the kids anywhere when they were little because loading and loading was so hard and required so much patience and diligence. 

She and I ended up running an errand once she got to my house. On our way back the baby started crying because it was time to eat.  The toddler did not like the noise and started growling to block it out. My daughter started telling everyone to be quiet. I was overwhelmed.  Sometimes you can solve whatever problem is going on in the car.  Sometimes the only way to solve the problem is to get to the destination. Sometimes the destination is far enough away you lose your sanity in the process. Fortunately we were only 10 min from my house, and I didn’t lose my sanity, but it reminded me of times where I almost did with my own kids.

I also remembered how I eventually reduced my stress on stressful drives.  I would put my earbuds and listen to my music or an audio book loud enough that it drowned out the sound. The first time I did this I felt guilty and a little unsafe.  I was ignoring my kids and blocking out the sounds of the road.  I realized, though, that driving agitated, angry, distracted, and mothering instincts going through the roof was an even more dangerous driving condition than earbuds blocking everything out.

It made me grateful to be past that stage, only to realize the shenanigans still happen, they are just less often and less loud. For instance a few weeks ago I had 2 kids goofing around and it turned into one child giving another a nose bleed. That night I thought, “What am I doing wrong? My sister’s and I weren’t that horrible to each other in the car.” And then I remembered the time I somehow got my sock stuck in Amelia’s braces. And the time Amelia somehow spit her gum in my hair from across the seat. And the time the sister who doesn’t blog hit Amelia and I on the head repeatedly with an echophone on a long car ride home from grandma and grandpas. 

Kids are hard in cars. Moms get over stimulated. Get ear plugs. And hopefully no one ends up bleeding too much in the back seat.

Missy