My Messy Mom-Car, the Junk Bus, and My Wake-up Call

When our youngest son was a little baby, I stumbled across something online which perfectly described my mom-car. The term was junk bus. Hilarious, right? Aside from the human children, I often tote around a bus full of junk. All of my kids are now very capable of taking their trash out of the car and throwing it away in the house. However, every few weeks, we need to have a family clean-out, where we uncover at least two grocery bags full of pure garbage from my car. 

Before I had children of my own, I secretly judged my older brother for allowing his mini-van to be such a mess. I mean, geez, how hard could it have been to throw out their French fry wrappers?  Sorry J and C. I now see just how hard it is.

Now, after nearly twelve years of motherhood, I am ashamed at what drive-thru workers and neighbors must think about the way I keep this car. Strangely, every mom I know with young children also drives a junk bus. If you do have a tidy car, please share how you manage it, because I am open to suggestions! 

Mark's cool dad-car stays insanely clean, because he is usually the only person in it. It doesn't even have enough space for all six of us...convenient, huh? He cannot comprehend how my car can be so disgusting. My passenger seat is always full of so much stuff, that sometimes, it even triggers the airbag sensor.   

One week over the summer, Mark's parents needed to trade cars with me so they could take the kids on some fun outings.  Before driving to their house, I was not aware of their plan to switch our rides. I am used to driving in our mess.  My very neat mother and father-in-law are not. I refused to hand over the keys until we cleaned up that traveling collection of filth.  

We filled up our usual two bags of garbage, and I used Clorox wipes to scrub the sticky, crusty barbeque sauce that Trixie had spilled in her cup holder. Next, I disinfected the steering wheel and any other handles that the grandparents would be touching. I wiped the foot prints from the seats that my little darlings kick during all road trips that last longer than 30 seconds. Reese shook out the removable floor mats, sending Goldfish crumbs flying across the driveway.

I apologized for the mess and happily drove off in Grandpa's very clean car. It was eerily quiet without my four chatter boxes behind me, but I could play the radio as loudly as I wanted. When I returned two days later to take the kids back with me, I noticed that my car had been vacuumed! It was so sweet of Grandpa to finish my half-done cleaning job. Was it because he could not stand being so close to all that dirt or because he knew I could really use that added bit of help? Either way, I thanked him and told him how appreciative I was.

We had our junk bus back from Grandpa for less than a week, and we were already up to one bag of trash. Gradually, items again began to accumulate: socks, sunscreen, library books, goggles, crayons, straw wrappers, sucker sticks, extra jackets, receipts...just junk!

Mark had given me a coupon to "make my car smell and shine like new" for Mother's Day, and he finally had a chance to make it happen before school started. It took him hours to clean every nook and cranny of my junk bus, but he did it. He did it, and we all promised to keep it clean, so that his hard work would not have been wasted. School has been in session for about a month now, so, how do you think we're doing?

Not so great.

The bus is becoming junky again.

This afternoon, in between errands, I had a few seconds to stop at McDonald's for a Dr. Pepper.  While I waited in the drive-thru, I looked at my passenger seat, which was covered with school papers, half-eaten granola bars and other junk. I felt ashamed, quickly tried to clean it up a bit, but then I didn't worry too much else about it. I was able to sit comfortably in my car while I waited for a friendly employee to hand me a cup of my favorite icy-cold fountain drink.

What a life. Stopping at a drive-thru is something I can do any time I want, and my only worry is whether or not the worker will judge how messy my car is?

As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, I saw another mom like me, who also had a cute four-year-old little boy. Except they weren't really like us. They weren't warm and cozy inside their nice car, zipping around town from place to place, grabbing Mickey D's and then deciding whether or not to take out the trash. They were standing alongside a very busy road, waiting for the public bus to give them a ride.

Punch. Me. In. The. Gut.

Please.

I have seen all types of people waiting at our city's public bus stops, but I had never seen a child standing at one. Ever.  How could we be so spoiled?

Seeing that mom and son having to wait for a ride to go somewhere that we take for granted every day (like the doctor or the pharmacy or the library), made me realize that I really need to take better care of my this mom-car of mine and stop treating it like a junk bus. I should appreciate how blessed I am to have this highly functioning, warm in the Winter, cool in the Summer, dry in the rain, plenty-big-enough-for-all-of-my-kids-and-their-friends, mom-car.


Do you drive a junk bus, too? Tell me some funny stories about it! Then, will you join me in the challenge to clean up our mom-cars?

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