One of my favorite reasons why I love being a parent? Because, sometimes, you get in your car and realize that most people probably don't have pebbles and a Hot Wheels Ferrari in their center console.
(Side note: I feel like I used to be so good at keeping my car clean, but it's so much harder to keep up with a kid in the picture. I'm open to any tips or suggestions you might have.)
In reply to Colin Wood :
I'm reasonably sure the MPV had a pebble or two in it at times, but Hot Wheels cars? Most definitely.
Enjoy the ride!
I was in a meeting at work when I reached in my coat pocket and pulled out a small rubbery plastic rat. Fortunately the fellow attendees were more interested in checking it out than questioning my sanity.
I've gotten into the car to find a couple good sticks in the passenger side. Nothing beats a good stick.
dculberson said:Nothing beats a good stick.
The amount of good sticks I found when I was in Boy Scouts.
Those were the days...
Colin Wood said:One of my favorite reasons why I love being a parent? Because, sometimes, you get in your car and realize that most people probably don't have pebbles and a Hot Wheels Ferrari in their center console.
(Side note: I feel like I used to be so good at keeping my car clean, but it's so much harder to keep up with a kid in the picture. I'm open to any tips or suggestions you might have.)
Turn'm upside down and shake'm before a trip. Check both nostrils too.
We got back from a beach vacation a couple of weeks ago; the cargo area on our CR-V still has a dozen or so rocks floating around. Couple of them are actually pretty neat.
I was not great at keeping my car clean before I had kids, and I'm still not, but I guess now I have an excuse.
I keep a Hot Wheels car in my truck in a depression on top of the dash. It rolls side to side when I go around corners, and if I do something too violent the car has an accident.
I don't have kids.
Just wait until they get into sports and you pull down the backseat armrest to find a cup in the cupholder.
Keith Tanner said:I keep a Hot Wheels car in my truck in a depression on top of the dash. It rolls side to side when I go around corners, and if I do something too violent the car has an accident.
I don't have kids.
Seems like you could afford a decent accelerometer, but hey, if it works.
No Time said:Just wait until they get into sports and you pull down the backseat armrest to find a cup in the cupholder.
"It's called a cupholder for a reason dad!"
Colin Wood said:(Side note: I feel like I used to be so good at keeping my car clean, but it's so much harder to keep up with a kid in the picture. I'm open to any tips or suggestions you might have.)
I had to reduce my car cleanliness standards. I still keep the outside clean but interior is meh. I figure when the kids get closer to be able to drive they will clean the interior like I used to as a teenager.
In reply to Colin Wood :
A few years ago I took my 12 year old daughter, my 23 year old niece and my wife on a made up local road adventure Rallye.
One stop was a state park high over the Kankakee River in Illinois and I put together a stick throwing contest.
They were fascinated with throwing sticks into the river.
1988RedT2 said:Keith Tanner said:I keep a Hot Wheels car in my truck in a depression on top of the dash. It rolls side to side when I go around corners, and if I do something too violent the car has an accident.
I don't have kids.
Seems like you could afford a decent accelerometer, but hey, if it works.
An accelerometer wouldn't make me laugh as much :) It also wouldn't make people ask as many questions. I also have an old-school manual stopwatch in the truck which has now been used in multiple videos because "does anyone have a stopwatch?" is the sort of question I get asked. And it's cool.
My wife has a cat collar with a little bell on it hanging from the rear view mirror of her old Grand Cherokee. If you make the bell ring, you're not driving smoothly enough.
I don't have kids, but we do borrow some short relatives on a frequent basis. That's why my good car has footprints all over the back of the seats and is occasionally very sticky.
I'm glad to see that my children are not the only rock collectors in the world... I swear my daughter goes out of her way to bring me one a day from the playground at school. 'It's a nice rock, right dad?!' I call her my little crow, haha.
I was reduced to giving up on exterior cleanliness, no time, but it is slowly coming back. Interior, I do my best to keep it presentable now that they are teenagers. I basically didn't let kids eat in my cars, still don't like it. What I figured out is to not own anything that I really care about until they are about 20 years old, this really take the stress out of it. Based on that I should be able to get something that I care about in about five years.
My daughter loves dresses. Hates wearing pants or shorts. She really loves dresses with pockets. There are usually rocks, wood chips, or leaves in the pockets.
I was just at a wedding and pulled a pair of Frozen (Disney) underwear out of my suit jacket pocket. I can only guess that we changed her into her pajamas and nighttime pull-up at the last wedding we were at and I just stuffed the underwear in there.
Wife was never one to keep her car clean, inside nor out; now, with 4yr and 1yr old... You literally need a shovel to find her floor mats some weeks. Not so much anything "gross", just toys, clothes, shoes (or a single shoe, often), books, etc. It's somewhat comical.
My truck is better, but not great.
golfduke said:I'm glad to see that my children are not the only rock collectors in the world... I swear my daughter goes out of her way to bring me one a day from the playground at school. 'It's a nice rock, right dad?!' I call her my little crow, haha.
I work with a grown ass man who regularly picks up "cool rocks" and tosses them in his truck bed to take home. I'm assuming it's a habit he's carried over from his youth. We obviously poke fun, but I gotta admit, some of the rocks he picks up are pretty cool.
Some of the adults you see picking us stones may be saving them for religious reasons. If you walk through a Jewish cemetery you will see pebbles and small rocks left on the head stones from peoples visits to the graves of loved ones.
My wife, kids, and I will pick rocks that are interesting or from someplace we visit. These stay in the car for the next time we visit the cemetery where my FIL and my wife's grandparents are buried.
No Time said:Some of the adults you see picking us stones may be saving them for religious reasons. If you walk through a Jewish cemetery you will see pebbles and small rocks left on the head stones from peoples visits to the graves of loved ones.
My wife, kids, and I will pick rocks that are interesting or from someplace we visit. These stay in the car for the next time we visit the cemetery where my FIL and my wife's grandparents are buried.
Good to know, but nah, not this guy...he just likes smooth, round rocks. "Potato rocks" we call them.
In reply to No Time :
In Joshua the 12 tribes of Israel stacked up stones for a memorial- I wonder if this is related.
In reply to Spearfishin :
I figured they were baseball sized or large since you said he threw them in the bed of his truck. i wonder what sort of rock garden he has going on at home?
In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :
I'm not sure, I married in to Judaism and I'm still learning new things. I'll have to ask the rabbi about it next time we're at shule.
What struck me most about parenthood is you blink and it is gone. Once a parent always a parent but it was just yesterday they were little kids giggling and carrying on about bugs and rocks and now they are in their 20s and 30s. I am still Dad. The same Dad but different.
To all of you with young kids enjoy the ride. Take lots of photos and videos for your memories. They grow up so fast.
golfduke said:I'm glad to see that my children are not the only rock collectors in the world... I swear my daughter goes out of her way to bring me one a day from the playground at school. 'It's a nice rock, right dad?!' I call her my little crow, haha.
My daughter sneaks them home in her socks since the school tried to stop her. She'll limp half the day just to bring home a rock. I recently cleaned them out of the cubbies in my truck and had to put the rocks in a bin instead of tossing them.
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