Driving Mrs. Crazy
I have a confession to make.
I am scared to drive.
Ok, maybe scared is too strong a word; nervous, anxious, jittery uptight, work better. Why? Have I been in a horrible accident? Do I have a ton of tickets? Expired license? A warrant for my arrest? No, none of those things. I'm just worried I’ll be pulled over for distracted driving, or speeding, phone use, something, anything!
Do I have a reason? No.
I have only been pulled over 3 times in the 17 odd years that I have been driving. However that third time my kids were in the car. My 4 year old son doesn't yet understand "gray" areas. Everything is black and white, good and bad. So for weeks I had to explain that Mommy wasn't a "bad" driver and I wasn't going to jail, Daddy just hadn't renewed the license plates!
I used to consider myself a decent driver. For a girl, I knew a lot of the technical stuff that goes on under the hood, mostly because I always drove cars that required the knowledge. I learned how to drive stick in just two easy lessons from my hubby. I also had an odd memory for remembering things from my class- like how you need to accelerate out of a curve, not going into it. Then I had children, and it has really affected my driving.
If the sleep deprivation didn't make me a bad driver then the pure distraction surely did. Kids whine and talk and need things. They drop their cup, they want a snack, the sun is in their eyes. For 3 years I managed just fine. I lived in an urban area and we could go a week at a time without ever getting in a car.
No more. One of the biggest adjustments I had to make when we moved to suburbia is the amount of time I spend in the car. I’m in that car a minimum of 30 minutes a day driving kids back and forth to school. I also had to adjust to very different driving habits. In my area I have two lane country roads, divided highways, city streets, everything and anything. Heck, just going to Target my speed limit varies from 25 to 55.
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