Everyone Needs a Ride

May 8, 2021

Everyone needs a ride…  to practice, home from practice, to a friends, Suburban Square, Suburban Square and sometimes Suburban Square. Most of the time Suburban Square. Mom can I get a ride? Mom can you give me a ride? A ride, a ride, a ride? My sister moved from New York on a Saturday with moving trucks from Long Island. By Monday, can I get a ride?

Travel soccer times two, travel basketball for one, travel lacrosse une, high school varsity field hockey and track and field one and one. Games which always seem to be in New Jersey, sometimes in Maryland, sometimes in Pennsylvania and why can’t we play teams from Pennsylvania? I know there are soccer teams in PA. They play on the field adjacent to us every week at practice. And why doesn’t anyone talk about this? That we drive to Tuckahoe, NJ to play teams from Staten Island, NY or drive to a suburb of DC to play teams from from North Carolina. And while this is exciting we can play teams in the next town.

Maybe I should write a memo, tournament post-mortem to the management on lessons learned, opportunities, strengths. Dear Sir, it would read. Everyone needs a ride and I am in Maryland and my son whose favorite player is Ronaldo because let’s just be honest, he is the best, is playing teams that are 10 minutes from our home… in PA. I saw one of my closest friends (from Philadelphia) at the concession stands, and a neighbor on the sidelines of the opposing team. But we are in Maryland. And could be playing in PA. Which is too long to write and no one knows how to spell it anyway unless you are from Pennsylvania so please forgive me for writing PA. Might I suggest, humbly offer dear sir, that we could play these teams in….. Pennsylvania if you please? Sincerely, Mom (because everyone needs a ride).

And yet… my oldest will be driving in less than a year. And then she won’t need as many rides. And because sister trumps Mom everyone will want a ride from her. And while I could relish this and celebrate the freedom and all the time I will have back. I will miss it.

I remember coming home from the hospital with newborns in the back seat and wanting to tell everyone around me to slow down, and to stop driving like maniacs (they weren’t, the speed limit was 25) down Putman Avenue on the short trip from Greenwich Hospital to Riverside, CT.  I longed for a presidential motorcade or police escort until I could lift my baby from the car seat and bring them safely inside. And today, thinking of my daughter getting behind the wheel of a car brings it back. But worse. I want to walk into a dealership with excuse me sir I am looking for a car, something safe, very safe. No, not like SUV safe, more along the lines of armored tank, or military vehicle, something like that? Or how about bubble wrap around the car? My daughter is learning to drive you see….

Being a parent is like walking around with your heart outside your body.

Your daughter sits behind the wheel of a car, or your son walks into the school with 2 sharpened number 2 pencils, your daughter runs onto the turf with lacrosse stick and googles… and your heart goes too.

And how blessed am I … everyone needs a ride.

Photograph courtesy of Rachel McGinn Photography 

Written by Mary Kate O’Malley

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Category: Random and Fun
Tags: drivers, for kids, for moms, mommy blog, mommy life, Motherhood, parenting, random and fun, teen drivers, teens, too fast |