Day Eight - A new kind of road rage

A lot of things change when you have a baby - everyone knows that.  Children make many parents better people.  I definitely want to act only in my son's best interest and always be a good role model for him.  I can say for sure that I am a better driver because of my son.  Prior to his birth, I was known to get a little irritated (understatement of the year) at drivers who were rude - cutting me off in traffic, failing to use blinkers, tailgating, etc., etc.  Let's just say that living in a major metropolitan area meant giving my third finger plenty of exercise and hearing my mother warn me that someone would pull a gun on me.

Enter my new driving - I get where I am going when I get there and drive in no offensive fasion at all.  I am the epitome of defensive driver.  Yesterday, however, road rage was back in my car.  This time, it was in the backseat.

About halfway home, sitting in rush hour traffic (read: parking lot on the interstate), my son decides to begin to wail.  I know he wants his pacifier, but I cannot exactly get out of the car and climb into the backseat to give it to him.  So, he continues to wail.  I swear he is mad at the guy who is driving on the shoulder.  Or maybe the woman who is texting and eating while steering with her elbow.  I'm not totally sure at whom the rage is directed, but my son is full of it.

I put on the U2 "Rockabye Baby" album (which is awesome, by the way), and the crying slowly stops.  Then there is the silence.  I'm thinking, "Why is he silent?  Is he okay?"  Oh dear.  I am not going to zig and zag through traffic and become one of those people I loathe, but it is rather nervewracking to hear my son go from spastic zigger/zagger to calm and kind blinker-user in a playing of "All I Want is You."  Thanks, Bono.