A Yankee has Landed in Texas

My kids think I am crazy sometimes!  I put myself on automatic pilot, especially when I am driving, and some funny things happen when I do that!  When I told my then 13 year old daughter one day, that I missed turning on her friend’s street because I was on automatic pilot and was thinking we were driving to the grocery store instead, she actually thought it was a button in the car that I pushed to turn on ‘automatic pilot’!  I guess I used that phrase an awful lot at the time to explain the many mindless mistakes I made.

One day, I picked my daughter and her friend up from dance practice and they asked if we could go to Taco Bell and get food from the drive thru.  I said sure and off we went.  I drove up to the window and didn’t realize that there was only one window at Taco Bell.  Most drive thrus have 2 windows, one for paying and then one for dispensing the food.  I have driven thru many, many fast food drive thrus being a working mom with two very active young girls. 

So, that day, I ordered the food through the intercom at the drive thru, then proceeded to the window to pay.  There was a young man, a teenager, working the window at the time.  I paid my money, he gave me the change, I said thank you and I drove forward to go to the next window.  But there wasn’t a 2nd window!  I continued to drive forward, not realizing that I should be stopping at a window for the food but instead was driving out into the parking area toward the street to head home!  My daughter and her friend sat in the back seat quiet, watching me.  They sat there for about 30 seconds until my daughter finally said, “Mom, we didn’t get our food.”  I looked back at the restaurant drive thru and the young man working was hanging out the window watching me drive off.  I burst out laughing and did a huge U turn and headed back to the drive thru window.  Thankfully, no one else had driven up yet.  The young man watched me, without even cracking a smile and as I drove up to the window dying from laughter, he calmly said “Want your food now?”

Do you ever have fun with your kids?  Teenagers especially?  Amid the rolling eyes and grumpy good mornings, do you keep smiling and try to be silly?  I try hard not to let the moments when foul moods strike set the tone.  Someone told me once that as the mom, I am the one who sets the tone of my household.  That was an eye opener for me.  I had been thinking, “Man, all we do is fight in our house.  I can’t stand it.  Why is everything yelling and so negative.”  After my friend told me that I set the tone, I realized that I had the power to change it.  I love laughing with my kids and my husband.  I try to take deep breaths when things start going south in our household and do or say something stupid or silly.  Often, I purposely say something so dumb that I know my kids will crack up.  At first, I think they thought I really was that dumb.  But, they’ve come to realize that I’m not really a dumbo, I’m just playing one.  We get to giggling over such silly stuff.  It’s such fun.Here’s a for instance.  I was driving my 14 year old to her boyfriends house.  She was trying to call him to tell him she was almost there.  She couldn’t get through, his phone was busy.  She started to worry, saying she had told him she would call him before she got there but she thought his mom was on the phone.  She kept trying to dial him.  So, I put my hand to my mouth and called out “Mark.  Mark!”  Then I said, “Now you can tell him you called him.”  She burst out laughing.  She jumped in and started calling him the same way, and even rolled the window down and called out the window.  She laughed about that for 2 days. 

Silly?  You bet!  But also a moment she and I still laugh about.