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I'm Driving in my car



    




I drive a mini van. That is probably not a surprise seeing as I'm an overly involved mother of three. It's almost required - I mean imagine a farmer primarily driving a Smart Car or a Mini Cooper. Those vehicles would not be up to the jobs the farmer would need done, right? Now imagine an overly involved mother of three primarily driving a smart car or a mini - they're not up to the jobs I have needed done. 


I have been the car pool mom, field-trip mom, camp transportation mom, shuttle to-and-fro mom and assorted other 'moms' that required seating for seven. My van (or vans since I've had more than one) have held passengers singing songs by Pete Seeger, Barney, Raffi, Hilary Duff, 98 Degrees and many others. The van has seen Chinese fire drills, games of 20 questions, whispered secrets, giggles and many other games or sounds of children. Lately, all of that has changed - the songs are usually by bands I don't know with lyrics I don't occasionally understand and sometimes they are played through headphones heard only by the teen wearing them.(After shouts to turn it down!!) And if there are games played they are played solo on a cell phone or iPod. My van doesn't usually hold more than one or two other passengers. More often than not, they are driving their own car and it's NOT the van.


The van is a perfect metaphor for how my role as parent has changed. 


When we first got this van - it seemed like a luxury with automatic doors, separate sound controls, leather seats and amenities that are now considered more obsolete. Now, the automatic doors don't always work, there is a new stereo because the old one broke so the rear sound controls don't work and the leather seats have tears. There are groans when I suggest we take the van - mostly from John! I have said that I would drive it into the ground - at 151,000 miles we are getting pretty close.


So that has had me pondering what my next vehicle should be - in the past I've let my 'job' define the car. Well that 'job' has changed from hauling many children to . . . well you know. It is most often just me. Sometimes Delaney. And occasionally a friend or two. I no longer require room for seven. I have found that I love tooling around town in our 'summer only' car - a red mustang convertible but we don't drive it in the rain or when it might rain! (In Michigan that certainly limits the days it's driven.) It's fun to put the top down and stereo up and rev the engine. But I need something a little (not a lot) more practical. And I have always wanted a Volkswagen Beetle - yellow, convertible and all me! So that just may be the car of the future - at least my future. I won't sulk gently into the empty nest but instead I'll rev my engine and slowly race into time for me.


And you thought I was going to make you all weepy about the kids leaving home and my van being empty. Not today, maybe tomorrow.

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