Remember a few months back when Georgia and I were going car-free on Tuesdays [0]? Well, please don’t be disappointed in us; I have to admit to you good folks we fell off the wagon, or in this case, the bus. Georgia had four weeks of summer school, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and that, coupled with my new at-home work schedule didn’t leave me with enough time to walk her to and from school, so we hopped into the car. I didn’t make a big deal about it, but I think now I should have—she would have reminded me, chided me, shamed me, even. But I didn’t tell her, and we’ve fallen back into the car habit.

It’s not like we use the car every day anyway. A day or two can pass and without having started it at all. And last week, my dear neighbor-pal Jenny let us borrow her fancy bike-with-child-seat while she was on vacation, so we rode to the park and to school and back. And we still walk a lot. But Car-Free Tuesday really helped me to focus on it, and to create those exciting teachable moments, and have our lives slow down a little.

So, we’re back on the wagon! When I explained to Georgia that we’re going to do Car-Free Tuesdays again, and take the bus to swimming lessons (a five minute drive, a 24 minute bus trip), and a play date (a ten minute drive, a 40 minute bus trip), she said, “The bus is a kind of a car.”

“Yes,” I said, “but if we take the bus we won’t be putting our car pollution into the air.”

“But a bus makes a LOT of pollution!” Georgia countered. (She’s been quite the challengerella lately. She actually really likes taking the bus, because she gets the exhilaration of riding with no car seat.)

“That’s true.” I said, “But if every person taking the bus isn’t using a car, then all that pollution from each car isn’t going into the air!”

“Okay, bus!”

That was easy.

I think we did pretty well the first try, so we’ll try again. I’m sure life will take us back off the bus, but we’ll see how long we can go this time. Howzabout you folks out there who were trying to go Car Free? Did anyone else fall off? Does anyone else want to try?