Rerouting

Photo credit:  whnt.com

I used to be the driver with a firmly established route. I used to get places on time.  In cute outfits, complete with earrings.  But that was before I had kids.  Now, getting from point A to point B involves a lot of roadblocks, traffic jams, breakdowns and ultimately, rerouting.

Always rerouting.

Because nothing as a parent is straightforward.  Especially your kids.  Especially when they're teens teetering the line between capable and yet completely dependent.  Mostly on my nagging, reminding them that they're perfectly capable.  But, they're also completely dependent on my car.  Because even though one of the kids has a driver's license.  He doesn't have a car yet.  Until he buys himself one.  Because he's perfectly capable of saving money to do that and asserting more independence.  But, until then, five of us share one car.  

Which is constantly rerouting.

Because while we all live in the same house, we don't all speak or understand the same language, apparently.  Even if I say it louder or seven more times.  "CAN'T TAKE YOU THERE RIGHT NOW CAUSE I'M TAKING EMBER TO GYMNASTICS.  SEE HOW IT'S WRITTEN ON THE CALENDAR AND EVERYTHING?"  (Swap my kids names with different destinations a la mad libs and this is every day, all summer long.)  But we live in the time of instant gratification where planning ahead of time, organizing, compromising and waiting have become foreign concepts.  And nothing has become more routine than my constant nagging and reminders.   "You DO have a bike you know..."

Cause all this rerouting is driving me crazy!