MSNBC recently ran this great online article called The 7 Biggest Driving Mistakes Moms Make.
The Big 7 are:
1. Chatting on your cell phone
2. Feeling overconfident
3. Driving while drowsy
4. Speeding
5. Snacking while steering
6. Attending to your kids
7. Slacking on car maintenance
As for me, I make it a point not to talk on my cell phone while driving with my kids in the car (because I'm virtuous like that) and my husband complains that my cruising speed has slowed to that of an arthritic old lady sipping tea from a travel mug. Our car is 7 months old, so not much maintenance to be had there yet.
But the rest?
Guilty as charged.
My worst infraction has to be #6. Attending to my kids. I'm terrible about this. TERRIBLE. And inconsistent. Half the time I tell them I can't unwrap their fruit leathers/pass them their water bottles/look at the funny things they're doing in the rear view mirror until we're at a red light. Or better yet, at our destination.
The other half of the time I give in to their whining demands (or, occasional polite requests) and give them the goods while keeping one eye (and two brain cells) on the road.
Faced with the statistics MSNBC doles out, like "80 percent of accidents result from driver distractions of just three seconds", I'm making it my mission to do better.
From now on I'm all about the road. And all about making the kids wait.
