Car Radio….

I was driving two of our kids to a swim meet this weekend and we found ourselves with a couple of hours of congested road time to hang out.

 
Car time is a great time to catch up and by catch up, I mean, listen to the kids play their video games while occasionally hearing them say, “Mom, do you know you’re talking to yourself, we can see your lips moving in the mirror.” Then I say to my friend the mirror, “Well maybe if I had someone to talk to….” and we bond.

 
Yesterday, one of many, many requests I was tasked with as the driver was, “Mom, can you turn on some music?” or “Mom, can you turn up the music?” or “Mom, can you change the station?”

 
When I turned on the radio, an old favourite, “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany wasn’t even through the “Children behave” first two words when Hanna said, “Change it.”

 
I had to put my foot down. Not too hard as I might have gotten a speeding ticket but I was going to enjoy this car ride too and after carting kids around for what feels like the better part of a decade, I deserved to get my Tiffany on and so I did. I belted out those classic ‘80’s lyrics, whispering the “the beating of our hearts is the only sound” when I, for the first time maybe, started to piece together what this song was actually about.

 
When it finished and there was no encore requested, Hanna said, “Now can you change it?” but “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” came on. I realized that Tiffany wasn’t a fluke, this was a Sunday rewind and I was about to enjoy a lot of fun songs while my kids tried to build minecraft castles suited to Jim Croce’s living standards.

 
“Mom, we hate this, please turn it off.” I chose to ignore them because Leroy was the “baddest man in the whole damn town!” my kids were writing “Call 9-1-1”on the frost forming on the windows. I was enjoying this thoroughly.

 
After “Eternal Flame” Hanna said, “Mom, if I have really bad races today, I’m blaming this terrible music you forced us to listen to on the drive today.”

 
“Thank you for the ride Mom!” (Said no one ever)

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