Travel time estimates don’t allow for children

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

June 25, 2009

The most difficult part of parenthood for me to reckon with isn’t the cost of children, or the mess. It’s not any loss of freedom to move about on a Saturday night, or even the actual labor of childbirth.

Wait, no, my wife is making a gesture from across the room that I’m egregiously underestimating that last point.

Nevertheless, the hardest aspect for me with a family this size, is that at least once a year I strap these kids into a van and drive them cross country.

That’s right, it’s family vacation time … (read more)