RELATIONSHIPS April 26, 2004 Issue

Don't just do something—pray!

By Madora Kibbe

I didn't mind driving my own kids to school every day. It was one of those "little things" that were good for our relationship. But I did mind taking their friends. Sounds pretty petty, doesn't it? I'm the first to admit that it was. But still I was resenting it. I loved that time alone in the car with my kids; it was our chance to start the day off right—sometimes listening to music, sometimes reading a verse from the Bible, sometimes just talking. But my daughter's friends changed the dynamic, made me feel less like Mom, more like chauffeur.

And to be perfectly honest, these girls weren't high on my list of kids I wanted my kids to hang out with. They were often sullen, said mean things about other friends behind their backs, and seemed to complain about everything. Sort of like I'm doing now.

So what did I do? I gritted my teeth and drove them all, through the fall and into the winter. It was slowly driving me nuts. At least they would walk to our house, which was nice—except they were almost always running late, which made us late. Occasionally, I even drove to their house and picked them up.