So, the question is, “Why pull through the drive-thru?”  Well, toddler was safely and calmly sitting in the car seat and baby was asleep.  Who wants to disturb peaceful children, right?  I had lots of errands to do, drive-thru bank, drive-thru coffee, drive-thru car wash, drive-thru dry cleaners, drive-thru gas, drive-thru oil change… I could do all my errands while comfortably seated behind the wheel of my car.

I didn’t grow up in a drive-thru world.  I remember errands day and it was a long day of the week for little 5 year old Lauren.  My mom delivered meals to elderly people who couldn’t leave their homes easily.  She dragged me along and made me interact with strangers. I remember getting out of the car at the bank and then getting a sucker from the nice banker.  I remember sitting down in a restaurant for the lunch buffet.  It was our little “date” squeezed in between errands.  Errand day was a long day.  It took longer to do fewer errands, but we stopped and talked with people.  We interacted.  It was not virtual.

American life has become so busy and at the same time so distracting that we hardly ever pause to consider if our “convenient” fast food restaurants make our lives any easier.  The food is not quality, the price is not cheaper, it takes many minutes to sit in line and order and it does serious damage to our bodies.  Instead of relying upon these modern day “conveniences” we can use other options such as:  packing lunches at home, bringing a blanket to pic-nic anywhere convenient, eating fresh fruits and veggies and pb&j.  Now that is easy.

So, now I’m making a resolution to fill my life with more options than drive-thru errands.  If you’d like to join me in this little experiment I’d love the company!  I’ll take it one week at a time… but hope to avoid drive-thru lifestyle for the rest of the year.  Maybe it will be so much better that I’ll continue avoiding drive-thrus for life!  I want my children to understand that interacting with people in our society, even on busy errands days is vital to our evolution as a society and far more enjoyable than the current modern day alternatives!

-I will not drive thru a drive-thru, myself.

-If I am in a car (that I am not driving) and we drive-thru a restaurant, I will either have prepared a sack meal or will get out and walk inside for my food.

-All banking will be done inside of the bank.

-My family make take my children through drive-thrus without me, but I will attempt to provide them with sack lunch alternatives when possible.