Mom I can't find the car.

If you are a parent then you have definitely heard this line before "MOM I CAN'T FIND IT."

The line heard around the world. The line that causes your eyes to roll to the back of your head. The line that causes you to put down your glass of wine, throw on your robe and catch an instant head ache the moment you go to the exact location and find the exact object the child just  said they couldn't find ."WHO KNEW".

Just like the washing machine loses your socks, kids seem to misplace things and expect you to find it. Or we put something down in the house and send our kids to retrieve it only for them to say "Mom I can't find it." This happens to me at least once a day in my house. Now I'm at the point where I don't even ask anyone to find something for me, and if they loss a toy, book, remote it just stays LOST.

But what do you do when you send your child to look for something like the family car and he comes back and tells you "Mom I can't find the car"? Here is my story.

Monday morning 10/16/17.
After a long weekend of shopping, eating out and birthday/baby shower celebrations everyone gave me hell to wake up Monday morning.  After driving around my neighborhood for an hour the night before I finally found a park around the corner. In my effort to get inside the house quickly so I can get everyone to bed I forgot to take Ari's Ipad and Tonio's Iphone and glasses out of the car. It's only when I finally got into bed Sunday night did I realize that I left those items in the car. I made a mental note to self that in the morning I will send Anthony out to get the stuff from the car. Now, Anthony (High Schooler) has done this before so I didn't put any thought into asking him to do it again. By 7:15 Am he is downstairs ready to go. I stop him before he leaves and tell him to run around the corner and get the stuff out the car. This should only take about 5-6 mins and then he can be on his way. He takes the car keys and heads out the door. By this time the other two kids are almost ready for school and I'm packing lunch bags in the kitchen. About 15 mins pass and I realized I haven't heard from Anthony so I call his phone. When he answers I ask him what is taking so long and he says "Mom, I couldn't find the car but I left the keys by the door and I'm heading to school. At this point my stomach starts to turn into knots, the vein in my forehead begins to throb and I start to panic. But I also have to stay calm because I have two small little humans that can't see Mommy sweat. They are watching and taking mental notes on how to BREAK ME DOWN and I will NOT give the enemy aka my children any ammo.

Coming out of my panic, I start to rush around the house finishing up my morning duties. All the while trying to figure out WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CAR. Did someone steal it? Was it Towed? I know I was tired and in a rush, but I'm always responsible when it comes to parking my car.

Finally I get the kids out the door. Now we usually head right towards everyone's school but I need to find out what happened to the car so we head left. This throws my kids for a loop and they begin to ask questions. Why we going this way? This is not the way we go? Are we going to school?
KEEP CALM ALICIA, is all I keep telling myself. I don't want to tell them that the car is missing so I just say I need to check on something. As we near the corner, my hands begin to clam up, and now I'm break out into a cold sweat. All the while Ari and Tonio are skipping and singing songs of merry cheer. We turn the corner and I close my eyes and open it slow....BOOM. THE FUCKING CAR IS SITTING IN THE SAME EXACT PLACE I PARKED IT. Still not breaking my cool, I retrieve the Ipad, Iphone place it in my bag, put Antonio's glasses on his head (which by the way he lost later that afternoon) lock  the door, check the parking sign and then proceed to drop everyone to school.

Not wanting to take all these electronics to work I make a quick detour back home to drop off the items and that's when it hits me. I literally had to sit down and gather my thoughts because all I wanted to do was go to Anthony's school, and drop kick him. He probably walked out the house, realized it was cold, said Forget this and came back home.

Moral of this story.... Don't ask your children to look for the car.