There’s nothing quite like the joy that comes from getting 2 kids in a double stroller anywhere when it’s raining.  Living in an urban walking town means I almost never drive the car, and the double stroller operates like a second home for us.  Basically how it works in the rain is the 2 children remain completely comfortable and bone dry for the duration of the journey, while I get soaked to the core.  Kids’ awareness of what is going on outside their covered stroller cocoon=zero.  I could write an entire post just on rain covers:  where and how they leak; the millions of places you have to connect the velcro just so they won’t blow off and g-d forbid actually drip onto the dry children; folding them up (crumpling them in a ball to fit under the stroller so they are wrinkled and wrecked next time you go to use them); where to let them dry when you live in an apartment (all over the hallway); and running over them with the stroller when the kids kick them off.

This is what our stroller looks like after a standard school pickup in the rain: 3 yes 3 backpacks for 2 children (one extra on taekwondo days), bag full of snacks to last a week, oh and a bag for myself because I actually exist as well and carry actual items just for myself from time to time.  I’m basically walking at a 45 degree angle to push the stroller  plus the 80 or so lbs of child weight, not to mention the weight of this tank on wheels alone.  Oh and I’m also resting an umbrella between my chin and my shoulder just to attempt covering maybe 1/3 of myself while I walk and push the stroller.  Joy.

While the kids travel dryly in their first class cabin in the rain, the demands begin.  “SNAAAACK!” “Mommmmy! I don’t want that!?! What else do you have?” “NO, that’s MINE!” “FRUIT SNACKS!” “WAAATER!” “MMOOOOOOMMMY!” So basically a few blocks takes a few hours because I need to brake the stroller every 4 seconds to attend to my first class passengers: open fruit snack bags (note: not ACTUAL real fruit of course..welch’s fruit snacks, the total crap snack like gummy bears with no nutritional value whatsoever, just want to be clear), open fruit pouches, trade one snack for another, receive trash, manage fight break-outs over a foot entering into someone else’s designated stroller space.

First class is so good for these kids that they just stick a hand out from under the rain cover to receive the snack or another hand shoots out  to discard the snack.  It’s a good day in the rain if I can catch the finished snack bag before it just hits the ground.  Service is often too slow for these 2.  They have to get back in their dry rain cocoon so they can’t wait all day for me to grab an empty fruit snack bag of course.  Maybe I should wear a stroller attendant uniform.  But even flight attendants get paid and don’t get this wet.