2002-12-21 - 8:50 a.m.
DRIVING DISTRACTIONS
AAA is advising people to �Keep your mind on the drive.� AAA is even giving out ideas on how to �maintain an appropriate focus.� One of those ideas is to �[t]ake steps to remove or reduce driving distractions, both those over which you have immediate control...and those with which you will need help, such as emotional issues.� This advice raises a question: is it okay to have the kids with me in the car when we drive to Minneapolis?
Certainly, quibbling teens and almost-teens in the back seat are driving distractions. We could try to reduce these driving distractions but if we knew how to reduce the size of their mouths, we would have done it long ago. As parents age, they get a little better at ignoring these distractions when appropriate but they both have an ability to make themselves un-ignorable. No, reduction won�t do it. It will have to be removal.
But are children distractions over which we have immediate control or are they emotional issues? Does it matter? We have some control over them but the control certainly is not immediate. We�ve seen parents who can silence their children with just a look or a word. We�ve even been them�but not consistently. The ones who do it consistently must have remote control devices stashed somewhere. Or, they beat their children when no one is looking. No, whatever is true of other people�s children, our children are not distractions over which we have immediate control.
So, are they emotional issues? Well, they are our issue. And emotional? Certainly and at the drop of a hat. Kat can go from ecstatic to deeply depressed and back again within three minutes. That�s her job. She�s fifteen. Day-Hay can do the same with rage thrown into the mix because she�s twelve.
So, it�s settled. They are emotional issues which can�t be reduced and should be removed from the car to improve safety. Now, whose help will we need? If we simply leave them at home, we are neglecting them. Besides, you can�t remove something that never was there and AAA tells us to remove driving distractions. We have to let them get into the car.
The question then is where to remove them. Should we take them out at a rest stop and refuse to let them back in? Kat never gets out at rest stops so that won�t work. Should we leave them by the side of the highway and, if so, should we do it in Wisconsin or Minnesota? Oh, no, that last part is easy. Wisconsin. Definitely Wisconsin. The Wisconsin state troopers with children might understand. The Minnesotans are terminally nice and, even if they understood, the Minnesota troopers would never acknowledge that children are driving distractions. They would refuse to see the overwhelming safety need for the action because it wasn�t nice.
Wait! That�s it! We don�t just leave them. We call AAA to come get them. Isn�t that what we have roadside service for?
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
