I am officially in my MÜber era.

A Mom Uber. No surge pricing. No tips. Just snacks crushed into the floor mats and a constant loop of drop-offs.

Baseball games, softball practices, ice skating lessons, birthday parties, playdates.

It’s not even a schedule at this point—it’s a full-blown chess match.

If I take him here, you take her there, but wait—his friend needs a ride, so I’ll grab him while you circle back and pick up the other one…

Honestly, it runs on vibes and group texts.

But as the song goes, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”

And thank God for that, because without our little carpool ecosystem, none of us would survive.

Last week, I was driving my son and his baseball teammate home.

This kid is what I would call… conversationally gifted.

Normally, I’d jump in. Ask questions. Be polite.

But I recently read something that suggested:

Don’t.

Just be the Uber driver. Sit there. Say nothing.

So I tried it.

And let me tell you…

I learned more during that fifteen-minute ride than I ever expected.

The good teachers. The bad teachers.

The homework offenders.

The kids who push buttons just to see what happens.

The ones who got a conduct reminder for laughing at the wrong time.

It’s like they forget you exist.

Well…not completely.

A few days later, I was talking to his mom. Apparently she had asked him, “I hope you didn’t complain about all that in the car with Ms. Krystin?!”

His response?

“She’s cool.”

😂

To be fair…he wasn’t wrong.

That teacher does give a lot of homework.

Which, honestly, might be the most powerful parenting hack no one talks about.

Kids don’t always open up when we ask them to.

They open up when we give them space not to.

When we’re present, but not pressing.

Close, but not crowding.

Maybe being a Mom Uber isn’t just about getting them from point A to point B.

Maybe it’s one of the few places we get a quiet window into their world—

if we’re willing to just sit back and listen.