“Are we there yet”?

The youngsters plaintive cry echoed down the the train’s observation car causing more than one head to turn and smile. All the coloring books provided by the train lay scattered in front her filled to cover to cover with fresh color. It was slightly over an hour since departure and the preschool child was thoroughly bored. Her harried father looked dazed at the prospect of entertaining his daughter for another 27 hours until we reached Seattle.

Trying to placate his daughter and retain some sanity he explained, “Mommy is waiting for us. You’ll like that.” It did little good; time for the young consists of now, tomorrow, and yesterday. It reminded me of the time when our daughter was that age and she asked,”What was Abraham Lincoln like?” I could see that it was going to be a long trip for certain people. I doubt if any five minutes passed before another inquiry of “Are we there yet”. Most of us other parents could sympathize.

Grandma Oddball and I had our own trial by fire when we were young parents. Children just being themselves are difficult. Add the complication of spending long hours in a vehicle and things can spiral out of control. When I was young my inclination was to just get behind the wheel in an early start and drive as fast and as long as I could. I could cover ground much faster and get there quicker. This doesn’t work very well with small children. Other means of travel need to be devised.

I clearly remember one such trip. We were heading from Santa Barbara to Seattle with one and a half children. Grandma Oddball was pregnant and sitting for long periods wasn’t particularly healthy so we made the decision to stop at least once an hour so that she could stand up, move around, and stretch. This program had an unexpected side effect.

At each stop we encouraged our daughter to run around and burn up some of that excess energy young children seemed to be endowed with. We encouraged her “get her yelling out” before proceeding. Before leaving each rest stop we asked our daughter if she had gotten all the yelling out. Sometimes the answer was “no” so we patiently waited while she ran to the edge of the rest area and yelled. I will forever fondly remember our daughter yelling and yelling and yelling some more before returning with the simple statement, “I’m all done now.” The end result was one of the easiest and most pleasant trips we have ever embarked upon.

As the children got older these simple things didn’t quite work any longer. “Mom he’s on my side of the seat,” “Mom she’s poking me,” “Mom he’s looking at me!” No one ever said, “Dad, …” Oh well, I guess that goes with the title of father!

We tried devising games and other activities but as all parents know these successes don’t last long. The most successful game was left, right, or straight because we let the children choose. At each intersection we approached they had to choose a direction and that is where we went. We never knew when we were going with this game consequently we saw a lot of territory and sights we would have otherwise have missed and it made for an interesting trip. Of course we never got lost because we always knew we were somewhere except once in Texas where Grandma Oddball seemed to get trapped in Alvin, Texas (home of Nolan Ryan) and couldn’t seem to find her way out but that’s another story.

Tags: family, Humor, travel

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