Tuesday Randoms

[mommyatty]

My kids don’t know to exit the car when it’s stopped and parked. I am completely flummoxed by this. I’ve just started leaving them in there until it comes to their attention that… oh, I don’t know, maybe they should get out of the car. Like I literally have to say “Unbuckle your seat belt and get out now.” And it doesn’t matter where we are. Doctors office, school, home in our own driveway. It’s just bizarre.

[mae0111]

mommyatty, MY KIDS DO THIS TOO!!! Like, EVERY DAY going to school last year. We would approach school, pull into the parking lot, wait in the drop off line, and when I finally got up near the door... NOTHING.

Then something would eventually click and they would unbuckle, gather their things which had somehow gotten unpacked all over the car in the 10 mins it took us to get to school, cars now passing us because they're moving like a sloth riding a snail...

And every day, I ask, "Were you guys surprised that we were driving to school? Like, how are you shocked every single day when I pull in here?"

They agree that it's ridiculous. And yet...

[sandandsea]

Jul 16, 2024 9:39:34 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

My kids don’t know to exit the car when it’s stopped and parked. I am completely flummoxed by this. I’ve just started leaving them in there until it comes to their attention that… oh, I don’t know, maybe they should get out of the car. Like I literally have to say “Unbuckle your seat belt and get out now.” And it doesn’t matter where we are. Doctors office, school, home in our own driveway. It’s just bizarre.

Yes! Or my oldest tries to jump out before I’m even stopped all the way! I just saw a video of “when the kids get to the car before you unlock it” and they’re all pulling the door handles a million times until it gets unlocked and I lol.

[k3am]

Same. It drives me nuts since I can't lock the doors until they're out of the car, so I'm inevitably just standing there... waiting.

[librarychica]

I hate being behind y’all in carline. But you’re not alone! There are definitely families that seem shocked to arrive at school/camp every morning.

My carline sin is that I’m always sliding in with 2 minutes to spare. Lucky for all that H usually does the drop offs.

DD1 has a friend over. The boy’s parents were a bit concerned that he wanted to go to a girl’s house so I had to trot out there and introduce myself. Much texting between the mom and I in advance of the event to prove that we were reasonable people and no hanky-panky or whatever the concern was is likely to happen under our roof.

Well the big day is here! And the tweens are …….. making banana muffins.

[mommyatty]

librarychica- I’m so judgy about the school carpool line that as we pull in I’m saying “Got your water bottle? Lunch? Go ahead and unbuckle so you’re ready to jump out.” Because omg. Those people who pull in and then need to have a heartfelt convo and hugs and kisses and then OPEN THE EFFING TRUNK! Omg.

[186momx]

DD jumps out of the car, but we do a lot of drop offs. I love that she can sit in the front seat, and I don't have to shift into park anymore for her to open the door. DH on the other hand pulls into the parking spot or driveway and needs to sit and chill before getting out and it drives me bonkers.

We had a brush/wildfire 5 minutes from my house last night. DD had friends on level 2 evac and was offering them to come to our house with their horses. We live about 1.5 miles from the urban boundary line, and it turned into 100-acre fire in a hay field. Just scary how close it was and how quickly it went crazy. It is under investigating, and I bet they find out it was arson because there is nothing out there other than hay/grass fields and a couple houses. No structures were lost at least.

[mae0111]

mommyatty, I do the same! "We are here guys. Do you have everything? Bags? Put water bottles in them? Shoes weren't taken off during the ride right? Jackets? Sports gear? Ok we are here at the door!" (Yes, I have to ask about the shoes. 14.5 and 11 and I have to ask about shoes.

Them: *staring straight ahead*

Me: "OMG GET OUT!!!!"

Them: "oh! ok! Let me find all of the stuff that I unpacked!"

Next year should be interesting because it's 2 drop offs at the same school - Middle is on one side of the street, upper on the other. I've already warned them that whoever makes us late has to walk to their drop off spot that day, or at least get dropped off last.

[waverly]

My kids did the same as far as trying to get out before the car stops and just sitting there for no reason. As they have gotten older they have gotten somewhat better. Luckily we have bussing and no car line, but we don't have bussing for high school so we shall see how that goes. They can technically walk as it is 1/2 mile away, but I might take them and have them walk home or something like that.

We got another round of storms last night. About 10 tornados were spotted, but most did not hit the ground so there is some damage but it isn't too crazy or anything. We have no power.

[supertrooper1]

Yesterday was a weird day. Beau applied for partial unemployment because his company is doing terrible and he cut his hours to 20 hours a week. He’ll actually be making $90 more per week because he agreed to take a pay cut to be paid back when jobs pick up but he thinks the company might not make it.

A neighbor came over last night to ask if I had a black and white cat. No, I have a grey and white cat. I showed her a pic and she said yes, it’s killing birds in her fenced yard. After our strange conversation, I’m still not sure if she was upset about him killing birds (which I’m not sure he is because I’ve never seen evidence that he has caught anything and his collar is noisy) or just making sure he was supposed to be outside.

Then ex-H was ready to start a fight when I had a question about our summer schedule and was actually doing him a favor.

[waverly]

supertrooper1 , We have an indoor/ outdoor cat, and every summer we get about 3 people at our door asking if this is our cat. It's kind of weird because the cat no longer wanders far. All our neighbors have dogs, and he feels safest on his property. He will literally be sitting right in front of our house and they will ring the doorbell and ask if he is ours. A lot of times he follows them onto our porch as they go up. Clearly he is ours. But I guess I would rather they ask then try to "save him" by taking him to the police or scanning his chip which is our current address.

I would prefer he be indoors but he ran outside so many times and would sprint and clear our fence.  He was smart enough to know we couldn't jump the fence and then would be slowed down because we would have to go into the garage and open one of the car garage doors.  The back fence is not near the fence gate.  What a booger!  He is so much easier to get back inside now that we no longer chase him to be inside. 

[marie]

I have yelled at my kids to get out more times than I can remember…. When we are in our driveway I just get out and leave them there. It is freaking 94 degrees today and my 15 year sat in the parked car for an extra 5 minutes! I can’t stand it!

[waverly]

marie, I've definitely told them about a million times you can't stay in a hot car it's dangerous. They weren't 15 so obviously your 15 year old will get themselves out when they are hot, but they were definitely out of car seats and even booster seats and they are just like la la la.

[dglvrk2]

My kids are actually okay at getting out of the car the two time a year I do drop off. I think it's because I don't allow them to open their bags on the way to school and I make them unbuckle before we pull into the drop off que. I also keep my talk brief, only telling them to get out of the car.

I taught elementary school for years. Being on drop off duty was painful because of the situations you all describe. I so wish parents would do whatever it took to get their kids out of the car....

[mommyatty]

I cannot believe I’m not alone in this car thing. I fully expected everyone to go “wtf is wrong with your kids???” I’m trying to decide if I feel better or worse now, lol.

[186momx]

Okay, so how many of our kiddos can direct someone to XYZ? DD is amazing at this and can easily navigate someone driving her to wherever she is needing a ride to. I took on of the girls home last week and she couldn't direct me from the gym to her house! Someplace they go to and from multiple times a week. I had to put her address into the car nav system.

[sdlaura]

My kids get out of the car fast…mainly because we are almost always running late/have tight turnarounds I’ll be like ‘ok, I’m dropping you right here to run over and join your practice, and then I’ll go park the car.’ Well, except I have one kid still in a 5-point harness who needs help unbuckling. The thing that bugs me is when we get home and everyone gets out of the car but doesn’t grab their stuff! Then I’m carrying 85 items into the house.

[erbear]

So much car drama today. I ordered a Prius in December...still haven't seen it. They haven't even started to build it. I went in today to check on it in person and they recommended that I look at a hybrid Camry since Priuses are really slow coming off the line, but I really want a Prius.

So I took my old ass Nissan in to get inspected (I had hoped to trade it in and get the new car but alas...). I made an appointment, took it in at 9:30. it's 6:00 and they haven't called me yet.

[dglvrk2]

One more School pickup/drop off car rant: Teslas. (No offense to any WPs intended) It's not too bad where we live now, but where I used to live and work, the Teslas at school drop offs and pickups were so obnoxious! They had to show off their vertical hinging doors... Opening and closing them for precious offspring. This took far longer than even the slowest of children gathering up all of their crap and just pushing a door open or pulling it shut.

[mommyatty]

Jul 16, 2024 16:42:58 GMT -5 186momx said:

Okay, so how many of our kiddos can direct someone to XYZ? DD is amazing at this and can easily navigate someone driving her to wherever she is needing a ride to. I took on of the girls home last week and she couldn't direct me from the gym to her house! Someplace they go to and from multiple times a week. I had to put her address into the car nav system.

I have no sense of direction. I do not mean I have a bad sense of direction, I mean I have NO sense of direction. I cannot reliably tell you what room is above another room in my house unless I know what it looks like out the room windows. So I can’t give directions now. And it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been there. My brain just cannot do that.

[sandandsea]

My kids are so quick to jump out of the car everywhere but home. So at least the drop off line is fast.

[mae0111]

Jul 16, 2024 16:42:58 GMT -5 186momx said:

Okay, so how many of our kiddos can direct someone to XYZ? DD is amazing at this and can easily navigate someone driving her to wherever she is needing a ride to. I took on of the girls home last week and she couldn't direct me from the gym to her house! Someplace they go to and from multiple times a week. I had to put her address into the car nav system.

Dd2 is excellent at this. DD1 has absolutely no sense of direction at all. My MIL is the same way. It’s just something that will never improve, so we work with it. She has a phone stand for her bike handlebars so she can just follow a map. She actually doesn’t want to get her license because she’s afraid to get lost.

[librarychica]

Jul 16, 2024 16:42:58 GMT -5 186momx said:

Okay, so how many of our kiddos can direct someone to XYZ? DD is amazing at this and can easily navigate someone driving her to wherever she is needing a ride to. I took on of the girls home last week and she couldn't direct me from the gym to her house! Someplace they go to and from multiple times a week. I had to put her address into the car nav system.

From school to the house? Probably. It’s very straightforward. Anywhere else would be very hit-or-miss.

I can’t judge, though. I remember trying and failing to direct my grandmother to my school when I was 14 or 15. I guess I just checked out on the bus every day. If I couldn’t get there on my bike I didn’t know where it was. My awareness of where I was didn’t improve until I started driving myself places.

[waverly]

Jul 16, 2024 19:03:20 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

Jul 16, 2024 16:42:58 GMT -5 186momx said:

Okay, so how many of our kiddos can direct someone to XYZ? DD is amazing at this and can easily navigate someone driving her to wherever she is needing a ride to. I took on of the girls home last week and she couldn't direct me from the gym to her house! Someplace they go to and from multiple times a week. I had to put her address into the car nav system.

I have no sense of direction. I do not mean I have a bad sense of direction, I mean I have NO sense of direction. I cannot reliably tell you what room is above another room in my house unless I know what it looks like out the room windows. So I can’t give directions now. And it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been there. My brain just cannot do that.

I can’t tell what room is above another either. But I could give directions using main roads.

Unless I’m familiar with the area I typically don’t know north south etc either.

[rere]

Jul 16, 2024 16:57:18 GMT -5 erbear said:

So much car drama today. I ordered a Prius in December...still haven't seen it. They haven't even started to build it. I went in today to check on it in person and they recommended that I look at a hybrid Camry since Priuses are really slow coming off the line, but I really want a Prius.

So I took my old ass Nissan in to get inspected (I had hoped to trade it in and get the new car but alas...). I made an appointment, took it in at 9:30. it's 6:00 and they haven't called me yet.

I do love my Camry. It's not a hybrid, but I will almost definitely buy another one unless I can talk myself into a Lexus SUV, and find a decent deal. Also made by Toyota. Great, reliable, sporty, smooth car.

[rere]

Jul 16, 2024 20:01:02 GMT -5 librarychica said:

Jul 16, 2024 16:42:58 GMT -5 186momx said:

Okay, so how many of our kiddos can direct someone to XYZ? DD is amazing at this and can easily navigate someone driving her to wherever she is needing a ride to. I took on of the girls home last week and she couldn't direct me from the gym to her house! Someplace they go to and from multiple times a week. I had to put her address into the car nav system.

From school to the house? Probably. It’s very straightforward. Anywhere else would be very hit-or-miss.

I can’t judge, though. I remember trying and failing to direct my grandmother to my school when I was 14 or 15. I guess I just checked out on the bus every day. If I couldn’t get there on my bike I didn’t know where it was. My awareness of where I was didn’t improve until I started driving myself places.

Wait till they start driving. With dd, I was like what do you mean you don't know where Walmart is?? You went probably once a week your entire life? Even now don't tell her street names. It's all ...go down that one road that my friend used to live, then turn by thart church, and turn by that place that used to be a Burger King...on and on.

[dglvrk2]

My kids giving directions? Hmmm......Thanks to Google Maps, most folks can find places without the help of small humans.

I'm curious now. I think DD1 would have names of streets and distances down to a science. DD2 would tell you where to go based on landmarks and personal experiences?

[librarychica]

rere, I hear you on ten landmarks. my dad worked for the phone company and so drove around the county in a truck for decades. When I first started driving he would draw me maps with both street names and notations like “the corner store,” “so & so’s house,” “really big crepe myrtle ….”

[mommyatty]

I lived in Lubbock, Texas, for law school. Rented a house from an onion farmer in a neighborhood full of really old people for all three years. They all had very involved decorations in their yards, year round. There was one house my husband called “the lion with three balls”. It took me 2.5 years to see it was because they had a lion statue AND a Victorian light post with three big ball lights. There was also this house with these incredibly tall, skinny pine trees (I’ve never seen them outside west Texas) that we called “the penis tree house.”

How’s that for random? lol.

[186momx]

rere, I drive by landmarks too and DD navigates by them. We both know the main streets, but landmarks are our go tos. DH hates when people give him directions by landmarks and he also prefers paper maps vs GPS.

mommyatty, When someone asks me where DD gym is located, I always say its off Prairie Rd kitty corner from the Prairie Schooner Tavern. Her gym is on a dead-end industrial street and 100% doesn't look like a gymnastics gym. We finally got a sign last summer saying the gym name to help people figure out where it is.