Sand Mountain Reporter

My husband spends a lot of time in car line at Albertville Elementary School.

Having three children, making sure they all have backpacks, completed homework, snacks and karate gear when they get in the car is a challenge.

The bigger daily challenge? Keeping them entertained in the car before dropping them off every day.

I don’t have a lot of patience and am in no way a morning person. I am lucky to get all of us out of the door on time, with all our stuff in tow and on the way with as few problems as possible.

I am not one for a lot of conversation so we used to bide our time in car line going over what is for breakfast, lunch and snack at Extended Day.

Imagine my surprise when during a recent trip to school early one morning, the kids started asking for the radio to be turned up. I did, and when I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw Erin doing air guitar movements.

My husband apparently makes the car line wait much more interesting, something I was informed of that day.

Choruses of “Daddy lets us” accompanied their requests for the radio to be cranked up to near eardrum bursting levels. Apparently, he and the kids love to sing along to the radio, complete with air guitar movements and dancing, when possible, the kids said.

Now, keep in mind my husband couldn’t hit the beat in any given song if the beat was shaped like Big Bird and he was swinging a boat oar.

And he can’t carry a tune, even if it was gift wrapped and dropped into a Bloomingdale’s little brown shopping bag. But he and the children can put on a show in the car!

So here I am, trying not to draw too much attention to our auto – “Betsy, the mad mom minivan” – while the kids are getting down to some Elvis tunes (why they love the soundtrack to “Lilo and Stitch” I’ll never know), when I look around and see other mommies and daddies doing the same types of things on the sly.

Some friends of ours who have a child in class with our middle son also enjoy car concerts. Since I promised I wouldn’t use her name, I can only say her son was rocking out to an old school rock song so hard the car was bouncing. That’s a good time!

So, if you notice cars waiting and shaking in line in front of Albertville Elementary, it’s probably just us crazy parents trying to find a way to keep the kids entertained and excited about another day of learning.

The fact we get to listen to some good tunes in the process is just a great bonus.

[Elizabeth Summers is a staff writer for The Sand Mountain Reporter. Her e-mail address is education(at)sandmountainreporter.com.]

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

A Southern Newspapers publication.