You Know You're A Mom When You Use "Dora" as a Measurement of Time

    If Lake George, New York is 190 miles away, and one mile equals one minute, and one episode of Dora takes 30 minutes, how many "Dora's" will it take to get there?  Oh well that's easy, you start by dividing 190 by 30 (because each episode of Dora the Explorer is 30 minutes long).  Your answer is it will take 6.3333333 if you don't take pee or poo breaks.  And you didn't think you would have to do math when you grew up.

    Sometimes you have those moments of clarity when you realize that some of the things that you regularly do as a "mom", are things that childless people would think crazy (and there is a good chance that it is).  As a Mom you try to make your children understand the world in terms that they can understand.  When they are little they do not really understand the measurement of time, but they do know how long it takes to watch an episode of their favourite show.
    When Gracie was little she was gaga for Dora the Explorer.  One day we were headed to Christopher's Mom and Dad's house which is a three hour drive with bathroom breaks.  Gracie asked "How long until we get Grandma and Grandpa's?"  I automatically answered her with "Three hours."  "But how long is that?"  I then had to think, how do you make kid's understand time measurement?  "That's 6 Doras".  She was satisfied with that.  Later with the advent of portable DVD players for the car, it made that measurement even easier.  We would slap in a Dora the Explorer DVD, and the kids would know that after they had watched 6 episodes we would be at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They could even count it down, "We've seen 2 Dora's that makes 4 more Doras until we get there."
    One of the funniest moments for me was on one of our road trips I had the girls in the washroom.  One of the girls asked "How many Dora's until we get there?"  I answered her, and then the woman who was at the sink beside us went into hysterics.  " I thought we were the only ones who measured time in Dora's".  We had a little shared giggle, when from a stall further in the bathroom we heard "We measure in Bob the Builders".  I guess as Moms no matter our cultural background we are pretty much the same... crazy.
    Yesterday we had a more mature variation on counting in Doras.  Grace shouted up from the back seat "How many songs on the radio until we get home".  Sorry Dora, you may be replaced.  So if each song lasts 3 minutes, and we have .......Great just what I need, more math.....