Peeing in Coke Bottles (or, How to Survive a Highway Snowstorm)

Cross posted from our sister site, Chicago Moms Blog.

Getting stuck in a blizzard, on a highway, in the dark, with a child - that was one of my parenting nightmares. How do you stay warm? How do you keep the child feeling safe - and entertained? What if you have to pee?

Well, thanks to the massive storm that hit the East Coast on Friday, now I know: You turn on the car’s heat every half an hour and pull out layers from the suitcase. You try not to cry. You reenact key moments from favorite PBS Kids shows. You give your 3-year-old son a crash course in the art of peeing in a Coke bottle.

Granted, after about five hours of sitting in West Virginia on a very dark, very un-plowed Interstate 64, we were able to finally make it through the graveyard of stuck trucks and abandoned cars to a hotel. Our experience was nothing compared to the thousands of people stuck on Virginia roads all night.

Still, five hours was as close as I’ll ever want to be to calling my Subaru home.

Continue reading at Chicago Moms Blog.