Saving the earth

For our Memorial Day weekend trip to Corpus Christi, we decided to save a little gas money by piling the boys in the back of the Sentra rather than taking the minivan. Near the beginning of the trip, Teressa expressed some trepidation about how the boys would do in the car. But since we had been driving the for a whole 20 minutes in peace, I think I said something like, "See, the boys are doing fine back there." Well, it didn't take long before relations deteriorated and Mason and Spencer were going at it in the back seat with Samuel stuck in between them. The rest of the drive down there continued pretty much the same way, and the drive back looked like the same song, second verse—until I came up with an idea.


All three boys in the back seat seemed like a good idea at the time.

My original brainstorm was to have the kids tell us stories. If they were busy telling stories, they couldn't argue. Spencer started off by telling a cute story called "The Five Buffalo," but we soon found that the stories were short and soon the boys were arguing about who's turn was next. That's when I took matters into my own hands. It was my turn to tell stories. My stories filled up the next hour of the trip, and all were as long as I could possibly make them because the kids were listening, and they were being quiet. And the silence was like sweet music to my ears. All of my stories had similar themes. They went something like this.

Two boys were taking a walk through the forest. Their names were Mason and Spencer. As they were walking they came across a large dark shape sitting in the trail ahead of them. "That's a grizzly bear," Mason said. "I can tell by the teeth." "No, that's a Kodiak bear," Spencer said. "I can tell by the claws." (Any guesses where I got the inspiration for my stories?) "Grizzly bear!" "Kodiak bear!" This argument went on for some time until the bear could take no more. He stepped from the shadows, stood up and said, "I'm neither a grizzly bear nor a Kodiak bear. I'm a polar bear." "You can't be a polar bear," Mason said. "The polar bear's natural habitat doesn't extend this far south." The two boys continued to bicker until the bear couldn't take the noise anymore and swallowed them whole, just to make them stop.

There were several other stories that were told along similar lines and were somewhat more detailed. I was just trying to eat up as much time as possible so the boys would stay quiet. Overall, I would say that my strategy was successful, but the next time we take a trip, I'm pretty sure we'll take the van.