How many times as parents have we heard those dreaded words? I have spent many long drives with the girls, some as long as over 40 hours in three days or 10,000 miles in just over a month. The more time you spend in any means of transportation, sooner or later the question will be asked, “Are we there yet?”

It is especially annoying when your daughter doesn’t completely understand the concept of #1 how long the trip truly is and #2 how long an hour is. A fun conversation to have is why can’t we split hours into 100 minutes and minutes into 100 seconds. More of a metric time table.

For those of you who enjoy making your kids suffer a little the answer is always in a couple of hours. The bad news is that sooner or later they catch on to this trick. Another good punishment is to give them a couple dollars in quarters before the trip and every time they ask they give you a quarter. Again they catch on to this and will possibly owe you money by the time you arrive.

So again, are we there yet?

Technically we are never there, we will always be here. I know that it sounds deep but it isn’t really. Think about that statement for a bit and let it settle.

We spend so many hours if not days of our lives trying to get to the “there” that we never enjoy the “here”. Let me rephrase it to help you understand. We spend too much of the “now” planning on the “then”.

Am I confusing you yet? The time continuum has been warped forever.

We tend to focus on tomorrow more than today. Is planning for tomorrow important? Of course it is but it can’t replace today. We try to plan out braces, learner permits, college, weddings and careers for our kids and are so busy doing so that we forget that today they needed a hug because they fell and scraped their knee.

We are only allowed to plan out the first 18 years. The majority of those days don’t need to be planned, they need to be enjoyed. No matter what happens; spilled milk, homework eaten by the dog, being dumped by the boyfriend, cars dinged and dented, remember to enjoy today with your kids.

You can’t plan for yesterday and you’ll never get to tomorrow.