Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Life's Messes & Car Seats

One of my least favorite things to clean aside from my floors are my kids’ car seats. Because it’s my least favorite I don’t clean them as often as I should. The other annoying thing about all this is I have 3. Yes, 3 nasty car seats all filled with little surprises of Gold fish crackers, Cheerios, juice stains and who knows what else! Have I mentioned the smell?


I don’t typically “plan” out when I’m going to wash the car seats and clean out our mini van, it usually just happens due to some sort of natural child disaster. So here’s how my day to cleaning out the van and car seats came to be…

On our way home from the grocery store my four year old cries out, “I have to go potty! Right now!”

Me: Seriously? Can you hold it till we get home? (5 min. away)

Sophia: I just peed.

I took a deep breathe and tried not to freak out. It was noon which meant I still had to whip up lunch, unload the groceries, and get the washer going so the urine smell wouldn’t linger on the car seat.

Sophia’s car seat is in the very back of the van so to get to it I have take out Jack’s car seat which meant if I already had to take out two car seats might as well take out all three. Sigh. And if I’ve made it this far I might as well take all three of them apart to wash. In the midst of taking out the car seats I just about hurled seeing all kinds of crumbs, toys, coins, trash, and sticky stains all over the seats and floor.

Life is filled with all kinds of unexpected scenarios. One day your singing the praises and jamming out to your favorite tunes and then you get a flat tire in the middle of the highway. We have no control over “what” happens next in our lives but we do have control over how we react.

I’m not going to lie. I like order. I like schedules and plans and routine, which is exactly why the whole car seat scenario just about through my head into a tail spin. It could also be that it was lunch time and I hadn’t eaten so I was already a grump. Anyhow, I’m learning I’m not going to predict every situation but I am in control of how I react and respond to those situations. 

So to finish my story I decided the wisest thing would be to pick up fast food (yes I made Sophia sit in her pee). When we got home I fed the kids first and while they were eating I took apart Sophia’s car seat to be washed. I then unloaded the groceries and left the other two car seats and the mini van cleaning to be done tomorrow. It can wait till tomorrow...

Life can be messy. I know you know that. So in the midst of this messy life choose your battles wisely and don’t forget to breathe! 
I spared you the worst of it but here's one car seat.
The nasty stains


2 comments:

  1. Oh, sweetie. I am with you! Kids are amazing and gross all at the same time. Here's our car-scapade I lovingly referred to as The Rotten Meat Van™ http://crazyadventuresinparenting.com/2009/09/on-highway-to-smell.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa that was too funny! I guess all moms need "that" experience at least once in our motherhood lifetime!

    ReplyDelete