We arrived in New York City with one very new baby and a large dog. Eleven years later we left with three school-age children and a medium size dog. Living in New York was an exhilarating challenge. Every outing held the possibility of something wonderful, the unexpected street fair, the teenage boys break dancing on the corner, the mariachi band on the subway. Every outing also held the possibility of, if not disaster, keen frustration. It was a hard place to raise children, the buses were late, the taxis didn’t like to stop for a woman with three children, and the subway platform was possibly the last place anyone should take a three-year-old.
As my oldest daughter turned ten, I realized that when I was her age I regularly ran errands on my own, or took bike rides alone, often heading to the local elementary school to use the big brick wall as a backboard to hit a tennis ball. She had none of that freedom. No one left the apartment alone and explored the world on their own terms. Even in the park, the kids were closely supervised. So we left New York City in hopes of having a more relaxed life where the kids could be more independent.
We moved to Connecticut after the school year was finished in June. We had two months of summer before school started, and it was great. The kids ran in and out of the house all day. My four-year-old was out in the yard swinging on the swing in his pajamas before breakfast. We felt like we were on vacation every day. I had been worried about how much driving I would have to do living in the suburbs, but the kids walked to camp and I could walk to the train, so some days I did not get in the car at all.
The beginning of the school year was a rude awakening. With kids in 3 different schools starting at three different times I drove the same 1 mile loop three times a day. By the time I dropped my son off at nursery school at 9, I had been in and out of the car for an hour and a half. In New York, I had also juggled multiple drops but that meant I walked several miles each morning, which was a great way to get exercise. Driving the car was just boring and time-consuming. Adding to my frustration I often saw my neighbors driving their kids at the same time. I wanted to carpool, but I was not sure how to make that happen.
Pregnant with my fourth child I decided it was time to be proactive about carpooling. I just needed more time and I knew when the baby arrived I would not be able to drive for 6 weeks, so it was time to team up with the other moms in my neighborhood. It was life-changing. Reducing my driving by 2/3 meant some mornings I did not have to drive at all. I was more patient with the kids, had more time to pack lunches and snacks, and had more time to get myself ready if I was working that day. I became a carpooling convert.
It is not easy juggling carpools. All of the kids are so busy, that the school day often starts early with band, chorus, or newspaper. Practices are cancelled or the location is changed. Kids get sick or injured, parents run late. Some days it is really hard and parents get frustrated. But the effort to organize the carpools is worth it. And I hope that in developing this app we solve the frustrations and enable more carpooling, and more time-saving.
