I spend countless hours in the car with my kids every week. Off to t-ball, soccer, dance, school, Alaska, Arizona, Texas. Wait, what? Okay, I'm exaggerating, but seriously, we spend quite a bit of time in the car...just me and them. It usually goes something like this...
Me: Is everyone buckled?
Grace: yup!
Sam: (silence)
[I start to back up.]
Sam: WAIT!!!! I'M NOT BUCKLED!!!......Okay, now I am.
[I back out of the driveway...make two turns.]
One kid or the other: Can you turn the radio up?
Sam: Can we have 98.1 the Bull? (local country station)
[I turn the radio up and we drive about 23 seconds before Grace starts singing along (the child knows every word to every song on the radio!). We drive another 1.2 seconds and...]
Sam: (low voice) Grace, please don't sing! [pause...Grace continues to sing] (voice escalating) I want to listen to the music! I don't like you singing! [short pause...Grace continues to sing with an almost-detectable grin on her face] (voice escalates to frantic, almost incomprehendable crying going something like this) I'M GOING TO START FREAKING OUT!!! I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC!!! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO SING ALONG!!!!!????? (etc, etc, etc) [Grace continues to sing only pausing briefly to yell back at her brother.]
Grace: I'M ALLOWED TO SING IF I WANT TO!!! SINGING AND DANCING ARE HAPPY THINGS AND ANYONE IS ALLOWED TO DO THEM AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!!!!
Me: (blood-pressure rising) Enough! Grace, don't taunt him...you are allowed to sing, but don't look at your brother while you're doing it! Sam, if Grace is singing, we can still hear the radio, but if you are yelling, we can't hear anything! Your yelling is much more disturbing to the car ride than Grace's singing.
[All is quiet for a 2–3 minutes while we listen to the radio. Then, Grace starts singing along again. Sam loses it again. Mom very dramatically turns the radio off. Both kids cry. Grace sticks her thumb in her mouth and Sam stares out the window with a scowl on his face.]
And that's how it goes! Anyone want to join us for a road trip? :) This is the reason I brought the iPod along on our trip to Cleveland over Spring Break. I figured Sam could listen to it in peace while Grace sang along with any old song she wanted to that came on the radio. But, of course, Grace wanted the iPod...so there was a fight.
It's a good thing they're so adorable when they're not fighting in the car...
2 comments:
I was going to say, Sam needs an IPod, but apparently you have already tried that!!:) Maybe put them both in the way back and turn up the radio, then you can't hear them!!:)
I'm afraid they'd kill each other! :)
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