Following Directions

Last week, I made some overly ambitious plans for a visit with my cousin.

Amy has been asking for a playdate with Judy's twin girls, Becky and Elizabeth. Since Beth had half-days of school last week, I decided to take Amy and Erin on a morning trip to their cousins' house while Beth was off at school. So, after Beth boarded her bus, we headed off for the 45 minute trip to Becky and Elizabeth's house. Because Beth would only be in school for 3 hours, we would only have a short amount of time to visit before needing to head back to the bus stop once again, but I knew that even a quick get-together would make Amy happy.

Of course, I didn't factor in the idea that we would be driving smack in the middle of rush-hour traffic. And, I didn't plan on getting so completely lost that I wasn't even quite sure what state I was in when I finally pulled the car over and called Judy to report our difficulties.

Needless to say, we never made it. We drove around for quite a long time before I finally managed to find the highway heading back home, and by the time we made it to our house, it was almost time for Beth's bus to arrive. Amy was disappointed, but I promised to reschedule soon.

So today, we gave it another try. This time, I was armed with good directions, and we had much more time to spare. Amy looked a bit concerned when she saw me pull out the directions.

"Mommy, are you sure you know what you're doing?", she asked. "Maybe we should just meet them at the mall or something".

I assured her that I was much better prepared this time, and off we went. We still hit some traffic, but we only got lost for a few brief minutes, and were quickly back on the right road again. We found the house, and the girls had a wonderful time. Judy and I got to chat while the four girls played dress-up, cooked in the play kitchen, and bought items at the pretend supermarket.

On the way home, we didn't get lost once. Not once. When we pulled into our driveway at the end of our trip, Amy beamed at me. "You did it!", she said. "I know just how to make those directions even easier to follow. I think we just need to go there a lot more. Like maybe all the time. Then, after a while, we won't even need a piece of paper anymore. You just need some more practice. Let's practice those directions again sometime soon".

I think she might have an ulterior motive, beside simply wanting to bolster my confidence in my direction-following skills. But she does have a good point. Practice does indeed make perfect.