My car is used extensively for commuting and for picking up and taking three boys to all kinds of activities. My car is – to say the least – quite a mess and smells like that too. So recently I cleaned my car again and hung up a car air freshener with a scent, under the guise of aroma therapy. A nice smell does wonders for the constitution, right? Never thought how big the effect would be….
Table of Contents
Day 1:
I was woken up (much too early) by the loving cry of my toddler “maaahaaamaaaa”. Against my better judgment I hope he falls asleep again. Of course not. I quickly get him out of bed before he wakes the other two.
I'm jealous of my toddler's energy, because I'm not a morning person, I wish I could start the day so enthusiastically. My second son is also a morning person. As soon as he heard the screams, he jumped out of bed, not wanting to miss a thing of the day and the fun. How can these sons be mine, I wonder? Fortunately, my oldest is beginning to understand the concept of sleeping in better and "only" wakes up at 07:00.
I give the eldest two breakfast, my youngest I help with his porridge. He really enjoys playing the “hide the spoon” game after every bite. As a result, it takes more than half an hour before he finally empties his bowl.
The older two run up the stairs to get dressed, brush their teeth and argue over who gets to go up the stairs first. Who will be the first to get the toothpaste and who will be the first to take the stairs down again, and so on. After my toddler refuses to dress at first, I manage it with a lot of hassle. My toddler sees the fun in chasing the oldest two together and joins in until they collide and cry. I am now only half dressed and grab the coats and race to the car. Forget all the backpacks and my own bag, of course, race back and close the car door, wiping the sweat from my forehead. And then… it happens…
Everyone takes a deep breath and smells my nice car air freshener and looks surprised how clean my car is. They all fall silent and let the scent penetrate well. The wonderful scent reaches the emotion center of the brain and immediately causes a change in mood. The reactions are immediately enthusiastic:“it smells so good in here”, “it smells like cocktails” (how they know what cocktails smell like is completely unclear to me). After I hastily dropped everyone off, I collapse back into the car. After raining, I take a deep breath again….. I immediately relax again and am happy with the traffic jam. This way I can sit extra zen in the car!
Day 2; relaxed start
I finally wake up to my alarm clock instead of my toddler! Everyone is still lying comfortably on one ear and I can eat at my leisure. I read the latest news and get dressed. I can even drink a warm cup of tea afterwards! The boys wake up and are once again excited to start the day but are not hysterically busy. They are polite and polite to each other. No games are played with the cutlery and no porridge spilled on anything. They quietly go upstairs and give each other space to brush their teeth. My youngest even cooperates with changing clothes. They pack their backpacks themselves and even hand me my bag. We go singing on the street towards the car with even, yes, a skip for the variance!
In the car we take a good deep breath of air and enjoy the wonderful smell of the car air freshener again. After dropping off I'm still humming. I don't have a traffic jam and I arrive at work on time. My life is zen.
How nice it would have been if it had worked this way… in reality two out of three thought the smell of the air freshener in the car was very bad and they argued about it again. In addition, the scent wore off very quickly 😉 . Well, at least my car no longer smelled dirty and musty and was cleaned up briefly.
Just try a different scent next time…
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