How Much Longer

How much longer until we get there?

This is the question that has come to define road trips with children in the car.

Let's face it - kids just aren't good at sitting still for extended periods of time. Put a kid in the backseat of a car, drive more than twenty miles, and THE question is going to come.

If the trip is less than an hour, parents can breath a sigh of relief at being able to cheerfully say we're over half way there at the twenty mile mark.

But if the destination is seven hours away what do you say to your child - Hey how about that stock market - rebounded nicely today didn't it?

So I sort of cringed when, on our way to Pittsburgh this past weekend, we ran into one monster of a traffic snarl. I knew The question was coming as soon as we slowed to 10 miles per hour.
Media Girl didn't disappoint, she threw THE question out there with no hesitation whatsoever.

....And then THE answer came in a blinding flash of brilliance. I asked Media Girl how many bars her phone had.

Media Girl was instantly plugged into her friends back home, diffusing the possible hysteria caused by a seven hour drive turning into a nine hour drive.

Of course, I did have to listen to the eternally repeated question so what 'ya doin' now? as Media Girl tried to discern what the person on the other end of the phone was doing that might have been different from three minutes earlier.

I was on the verge of asking How much longer until that call is done?