Now here's a peril of motherhood I've never heard a warning about: Having kids means you will probably start to leave things on top of the car and drive off with those things still there.
I did this first--and quite memorably--with my wallet in Pennsylvania. I was extraordinarily lucky and it was returned to me intact.
I was not so lucky with my checkbook, which I left on the top of the car after buying some meat at the farm up the road. It actually stayed on top of the car almost until I got home. Both of the checkbooks that were in the cover were found on the road and returned to me. The cover never turned up. The cover was leather, hand-made and embossed with various personal decorations by my grandfather. It, among all the things I have left on the car, was irreplaceable. And so of course, it's the one thing that has been lost for good.
Suck.
Yesterday I left Cubby's bunch of grapes on top of the car. We stopped when he saw them go flying by the window and informed us of this fact. I found them in the grass and returned them to him.
Today I left a canvas bag with a few harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, and green beans on top of the MiL's car. Not even my own! The senility is progressing alarmingly. I found the bag on the side of the road just past our house. It had been run over and so was coated on the inside with tomato puree, but no harm came to the bag otherwise.
The reason this happens after the arrival of children, of course, is that those children need to be buckled into their car seats. And if I happen to have something in my hands, I have to put it somewhere so my hands are free to deal with buckles. You would think, by now, I would have learned to put whatever it is on the floor of the car or something. Anywhere but on the roof.
Maybe I'll learn eventually. Or maybe the kids will get old enough to get their ownselves in and out of the car and I won't have to worry about it. I'm betting on the second happening before the first.
Famous family story: my mother once took off down the road with Kenny on the roof of our old DeSoto (he'd climbed up; at least she hadn't put him there). Great-uncle Ray was coming down the road; he laid on his horn, and she came to a stop, VERY embarrassed to find a quite small child on the roof.
ReplyDeleteThe third option is Cubby reminding you something is on the roof. I am betting on that happening before the other two. ;) Beth
ReplyDeleteGood idea! That Chubby is sharp!
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm assuming that was what you noticed on the MiL's car when we were on the phone.
ReplyDeleteAlso assuming that probably 99% of mothers who actually buckle in their children have experienced at least one such brain dump. I can use up a whole hand counting mine, and that's probably a low estimate. Of course, you have to have one more child to get into my league.
I can't blame kids; it was the book bag. Put the coffee cup on the roof, put the book bag in the car; drive down the street with coffee streaming off the roof. Sometimes I managed to get the cup to throw itself off the roof so I could run over the cup. I figure the neighbors were so entertained and probably miss those days.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could put an ad in the local paper....lost ads in ours are free. Maybe someone just had no idea who to return it to? Beth
ReplyDeleteSpouse has lost items this way as long as I've known him, and I tease him mercilessly. So I've been very careful to put my keys beside the car seat and my goodies at the youngest's feet. I often drive away and wonder where my stuff is, but it's always safe inside. Besides, I'm too short to use the top of the car. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome!
ReplyDelete