Lipreading Mom

Hitting the open road is one of my favorite warm weather activities. My family and I have traveled Route 66 twice and frequented highways in the U.S. West, South, and East. We’ve visited places like Oklahoma and Texas more times than I can count to see family and friends. 

Despite the joys of summer travel, driving and I don’t always get along. I blame this stress on my need to lip-read while driving the family places. It’s difficult to have any conversations in rush-hour traffic or even long stretches of desolate interstates. And night driving? It just doesn’t work well with my reliance upon lip-reading. 

From the scrape on the passenger door of my minivan to the cracked bumper, I have participated in enough fender-benders to keep my insurance agent in business.

Would it be okay to blame the inattentive driving on my three kids? Not every mom has to lip-read her children in the rearview mirror to understand what they are saying. But I do because I’m hard of hearing. When it comes to sitting behind the wheel, my eyes are my ears.

During some minivan excursions, my eyes focus on the cars ahead of me instead of the kids sitting behind me. Like magnets, bumper stickers catch my attention:

HOW AM I DRIVING? CALL 1-800-BAD-BOSS TO REPORT ME.

STAY 300 FEET BACK (NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR FLYING ROCKS).

IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE LIVING IN PEACE.

The last bumper message is something I should have been doing all along, instead of memorizing all the car stickers or talking to my kids through a mirror. Maybe if I took a deep breath and remained calm more often, I wouldn’t have backed the car up and side-swiped the passenger door against a mailbox. Or I would have stopped instead of rear-ending a dumpster. Maybe my van would still be in its pristine, straight-off-the-car-lot quality, instead of reeling with wounds.

Life is impacted by my driving style. When the days are more at peace, it is because I keep my eyes on the path before me. When my eyes sway off the path, I am left feeling anxious. If my driving skills are a metaphor for my life, then I am in big trouble!

The next time I am tempted to take my eyes off the road, I need to remember that simple, yet powerful, statement once spotted on the back of another beat-up car. When I strive to live in peace with those around me, my attention focuses on the joy of being on the open road before me and less on the distractions behind me.

Here is a new bumper sticker I’d love to create:

IGNORE THE DENTS. I’M A WORK IN PROGRESS.

How do you stay focused behind the wheel?

What reminds you to keep your eyes on the road, both literally and metaphorically on the road of life? Please share your experiences with me in the comments below.

(Image description: Lipreading Mom, a woman with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, sits buckled up in the driver’s seat of a silver minivan. A young boy with glasses and holding a green Monster’s Inc. stuffed toy sits in the front passenger seat. They are both smiling.)