It’s a Niro hybrid I’m driving on most days, these days, so I tell myself it doesn’t matter that my oldest daughter and I drive home from middle school between 3:06 pm to 3:14 pm, only to make the return journey at 3:45 pm to collect the littler one from elementary school. We could line up for her straightaway but we don’t.
The teenager and I tend not to use those 31 minutes productively nor do we talk privately about heady subjects unfit for a 10 year old’s ears. Sometimes we’ll swing by the bank or we will run into the grocery store because I’ve finished off the hummus too quickly or into library because the book she had on hold is in.
On most days, though, we just come home together.
I cherish that half hour plus every week day just the same.
She’ll grab herself a snack, I’ll check email (again…and again) and we’ll both pet the cats. We will usually act goofy about something someone did or said at school or we will poke fun at those inane Chevy commercials NBCSN pummel us with during halftime of streaming soccer matches. I mean, why is that guy holding the iPad? WHY!? He never looks down at it. Trust us, we’ve analyzed it like it was the Zapruder film.
On most days my girls are a whirl of homework, showers, eating, reading and bedtime from the time their backpacks hit the entryway hardwood (fine, fake hardwood) and the contents of their lunch boxes get emptied unceremoniously into the sink; plastic utensils and containers rattling around the cold stainless steel basins.
There are few special moments on most days.
Rarely ever do I get a moment like the ones new parents are always told to “love every single one” of. Um, okay.
It is just everyday life on most days. Once you’ve got it down, it’s kind of boring, familiar and routine. Rinse & repeat.
There were no significant memories made yesterday which is how it goes on most days. We just drive through the days together, back and forth and back again, buying the hummus, picking up the book, washing the dishes and doing the work.
On most days we are checking the boxes. We are saying goodnight, good morning, have a good day, and I love you.
I love you so much every day.
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