Her Own Little Environment

For the last several days, I've had the good fortune to be driving around town in a brand new Chevy Traverse, lent me by the folks at General Motors so I can review it (as part "Baby You Can Drive My Car," a series of car posts I'll be writing as I shop for a vehicle to replace the one I'm currently leasing).

That's not the point of this post.

Instead, I'd like to rant a little about my sweet, smart, responsible little girl... who leaves piles of trash in the backseat of my own car.

I begged her to treat the loaner with some respect, and she said she would.

GM is coming back for the vehicle tomorrow, so this morning, I thought I'd get a jump start on clearing my personal things out of there.

So you can imagine my dismay at the stuff I found in the back of the car:

• Food wrappers
• A half-eaten sandwich
• Her clothes  (she changes out of her school uniform in the car on the way to gym)
• Underwear (the girls can't wear anything under those high-cut, body-hugging leotards)
• A melted popsicle

That last one really got to me.

"When were you eating popsicles back there?" I ranted.

"What popsicle? I haven't had a popsicle," she said.

I did a Marge Simpson-ish slow burn as I looked for something that would clean up the sticky mess without ruining the car's luxurious leather seats. I settled on Windex. It seems to have worked.

"I didn't do it, Mommy."

We carpool with two other girls, including a 10-year-old. As I don't remember giving the kids any frozen treats, it's a good bet the item in question was hers.

However, it was resting on the seat right next to my daughter's hairbrush. And underwear. And I was really relying on her to police the back seats.

To be fair, I hustle my daughter to school, from school, and to gymnastics. She gets out of gym at 8:00, and she eats her dinner in the car on the way home. And when we reach our destination (around 9:00), I'm already hustling her off to bed so she can get a little sleep. After all, her alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. so she can do her homework.

I don't give her a lot of time for picking up after herself.

Still, you'd think she could handle taking her half-eaten sandwiches in to the house and throwing them out -- wouldn't you?

"She does create her own little environment wherever she goes," my husband laughed.

Yeah. Too bad it's polluted.

The Los Angeles Auto Show opens next Friday and SoCal Mom will be there scoping out the new models. Win your own family ticket four-pack here.

Comments

[Lindsay from Norcal]

Wow, and I thought I had it bad with the myriad of band practices I transport my kids and their classmates to and from (one plus -- the kids can't really eat anything before they play horns or woodwinds, so the food debris is usually not a problem). I think definitely part of the issue is how hard she's working -- one thing I've noticed is that in order to excel (especially if they're doing their homework in the wee hours of the morning) kids need to build up confidence to give them inertia. The problem is, that leads to egocentricism...they're so busy handling their own world they don't notice how they might be affecting someone else's. Indeed, it's kind of an environment clash!

Any solutions for someone who has also dealt with this? I guess I've grown used to it since my kids (my son in particular) don't need much policing in other areas (good at school, good social skills, etc). But, they've gotta learn somehow.

Also, I'm looking forward to your Traverse review as I am looking for a decent crossover these days as well. Will you additionally be reviewing the Ford Flex, per chance? The Traverse looks intriguing, although Chevy's recent crossovers have not gotten great write-ups (especially the Equinox, at places like www.carfunfootprint.com). Anyway, I have subscribed to your feed.

[Florinda]

My 14-year-old stepdaughter is the same way. In the car, in the living room, in the kids' bathroom, in her own room (which is giving her dad fits lately) - she's building her own environment everywhere she goes. As you so aptly put it, "too bad it's polluted."

[Kim/hormone-colored days]

What a great way to find a new car. I've participated in a few different test drives and thankfully my boys have kept the cars pretty clean, though I live in fear of finding a mess like the one you described. If it make you feel any better, I've been driving my real car (a Subaru Outback) around with a pint-sized jock strap on the floor near the back seat. I think it's been there since baseball season ended (June). Well, I guess my boy will know where to find it when baseball season sarts again (April 09).