Seatbelt battles.

Consistency. It's a pillar of parenthood. Anytime I get discouraged about how many millions of times I have to teach the same lesson over and over to my children, I must refer to the seatbelt story.

You see, seatbelts used to be a major issue at my house. The kids would neglect buckling them, long after they were capable of doing so themselves. They'd complain it was too hard to buckle, they'd get mad at me for backing out of the driveway before they'd secured it entirely (thus erupting into a full-blown power struggle), they'd simply forget until I reminded them.

We tried a lot of things. All those whose seatbelts were fastened before mom's got a jellybean; we stopped the car and waited until every last resister was buckled in (resulting in many a late arrival); I even accelerated up to about 15 mph a couple of times before slamming on the brakes while those without seatbelts flew forward and hit the seat in front of them. Okay, so that method was a little mean, but we found other ways to "teach them a lesson".

Anyway, my point in mentioning this is that it occured to me the other day that we don't have seatbelt battles anymore. By the time I start backing out of the driveway, I find my kids settled in their seats and I barely have to ask if everyone is buckled in. In fact, I usually find Eve (the only non-seatbelt-fastener) magically buckled in as well by some anonymous do-gooder. It gives me hope. And a little something to be grateful for.