Travel Trials

My grandmother changed my perspective forever on the sacrifices made when traveling by car. I used to think Alex was so wonderful and was sacrificing so much by driving the whole way when we would go on vacation; even when I would offer to drive he would magnanimously refuse and keep on going. So on this trip since we were taking "my" car I decided that I was going to drive on the first leg of our journey. Alex sat in the back and sulked while the kids were both so loud you couldn't think let alone talk or listen to the radio. That's when it hit me- it actually is harder to sit with the squirmy (the word my grandmother used to describe children in car seats) kids for 20+ hours than to drive the whole way. When my grandmother was talking to us about our drive and Alex more or less admitted this fact, my grandmother congratulated him on being such an "honest man" and then told us about when that realization hit her. I'm glad that I learned this now; even though he is still going to be the one that gets better sleep when we stop; he still has the most important job, but I'm no longer going to give myself guilt trips thinking that I'm the one with the easiest job. And to all you people who do both jobs by yourself-you're my hero who I never want to be.