A Day in the Life of a Mom in the Car

I spend a lot of time in the car. A LOT of time. Someone asked me the other day what I do when I have to hang out in the car almost all day. Here’s the answer…

The other day when I was driving my youngest preschool we sang, for the whole 10 minute drive to school, that stick-in-your-head song:

Lee, lee, bo-bee, banana-fana fo fee, me my mo mee. LE-EE!

This is how a day in the life of a mom in the car starts out. Okay, maybe not every day. Some days I listen to a personal development book, like Go Giver. What is amazing is that my daughter Molly picks up on characters and story lines from these books. Then she’ll mention it some other time and I’ll be surprised that she was paying attention.

Other days we mix it up with something different. There are mornings where I’m in the role of DJ serving up the songs requested from the back seat because Molly has a particular song she wants to hear.

My home-away-from-home. Even the car needs to smell good!

Once I drop her off at school, I always continue with a personal development book. Chalene Johnson refers to this as “Drive Time University.” It is a great way to get my personal development time in.

Carpool Mom

When I drive carpool for the other kids, it is just chatter and banter. My oldest won’t listen to personal development now (he’s a party pooper since he’s about to be a high schooler), so we chitchat or listen to music.

After the school dropoffs, if I’m back in the car I use this time for follow up calls, business calls, personal calls, household stuff and appointment phone calls. When I stop to think about it, just talking care of household and personal appointment phone calls takes up a lot of time! I’m just glad that I can do this from the car.

For school pickup, I have 15-20 minutes to wait in the car in line at school. During this time I read a book, listen to a book, or respond to Facebook messages. I always get there a little early to be able to get a spot in line. Some days this is the only time I have to pick up a book!

On the way home and on the way to activities after school the kids are talking to each other or I’m chatting with the kids.

Eating in the Car

I do prepare a salad for lunch and eat that in the car. There are lots of snacks, utensils, napkins and probably some other stuff I don’t know is there. You could probably live in my car for a week if you got stranded. Based on stories from my other friends, it sounds like this is pretty typical. Someone even jokes that they found a mouse living in the car (eeek!).

Before kids, my car was my pride & joy. It was immaculate and I had it detailed once a year. Now I just do a weekly sweep to take all the trash out and Jeff routinely declares it uninhabitable and empties all the stuff out, then takes it to the car wash.

My, how things change. I’d love to hear about how you make the most of your “transit” time. Send me a note in the comments.