MeanDaddy MITT wouldn't stop for potty breaks

[goclark]

I am still in shock after reading this article from Vanity Fair.... it was a 12 hour car ride!


http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/02/mitt-romney-201202

"Mitt put Seamus, the family’s hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon’s roof rack. He had improvised a windshield for the carrier to make the ride more comfortable for the dog."
"Then Mitt put his sons on notice: there would be pre-determined stops for gas, and that was it."

[HereSince1628]

1. My father was a union guy, he wouldn't stop the car for us boys...if needed we had to pee in a jar.

But, for my mother and sister, the car would stop.

My mother's bladder and the car's gas consumption got similar mileage, so we didn't usually need the pickle jar.

[bullwinkle428]

2. Typical control-freak asshole.

[goclark]

13. Mittwit is as you discribed

When you read the entire article, what Mittwit did to the Dog and the kids still happens today. Today he is a sociopath IMO.

[redqueen]

16. +1

It's all rooted in selfishness.

[dballance]

3. My parents were smart about these issues

First, we'd board the dog at the vet so he'd be well cared for while we were on vacation for a week.

Second, my parents would fold down the back seat of the Ford station wagon and throw a mattress in the back. Then they'd have us leave home for the road at us kid's usual bedtime so we'd all fall asleep on the mattress in back and not be awake and be little shits for at least 8 hours or so.

Then in the morning when we awoke we always got a big treat. We got to stop at Waffle House for breakfast. Yep, it was the South. Due to my parent's good planning I generally have fond memories of over the road vacations.

You do remember station wagons right? The SUV before there were SUVs.

[MineralMan]

4. Yah...sounds like a lot of dads.

When I was a kid, way back in the 50s, we used to drive from near Los Angeles to near Phoenix three or four times a year to visit my maternal grandparents. At the time, in a 1952 Plymouth Suburban station wagon, it was a 10-hour drive. Bathroom breaks? Not on the schedule. We learned early to control our fluid intake.

I suspect a lot of people remember similar things from their childhood days.

[Javaman]

6. My dad would also go into "mission mode" when we were on vacation.

He was an "achievement junkie" before video games were even a thought.

best mileage and time were what he was all about. We were just extra ballast keeping him from breaking his all time record.

[catbyte]

7. LOL. If we didn't get started by 5:30 a.m. dad would say the day was shot.

Lots of yelling and banging doors at 4:00 a.m., cold, dew-laden yard & car. Frogs & crickets chirping. Our cats stayed home to be taken care of by cat sitting neighbors or my grandparents unless they were going with us. I remember falling asleep in the car and waking up violently ill with carsickness. Dad grumbling & pulling over while I heaved my guts out...Good times!



Diane
Anishinaabe in MI & mom to Taz, Nigel, and new baby brother Sammy, members of Dogs Against Romney, Cat Division
"Dogs Aren’t Luggage--HISS!”

[Javaman]

8. Honestly, what was it with dad's and starting vacations at

ungodly hours?

It must be a generational thing, because my dad was the same way. Up at 3:30 on the road no later than 4:30.

but you have to know my dad was of the type that functioned perfectly well on 4 hours of sleep a night and not a wink more. He had this bizarre notion that we (my mom and us kids) were all the same way and he just couldn't understand why we weren't.

It's was as if he thought the 4 hours of sleep thing should have been passed down to us. I have no idea how he figured my mom into that genetic equation.

[TwilightGardener]

11. LOL-yes, I remember the anxiety to get on the road pre-dawn, us kids standing half-asleep

in the driveway with coloring books and pillows while my mom and dad frantically tried to remember to shut off everything and double-check all the doors. Now my husband and I feel like champions if we get on the road by ten.

[Javaman]

14. My dad was like Stalin when driving to our vacation spot...

my sisters would promptly scurry into the car and fall right back asleep. My dad was completely mystified by this. He thought that the whole-getting--up-at-3:30am was an ADVENTURE!!! And just couldn't fathom why my sisters would go back to sleep. 5 minutes into the trip, me, my brother and my mom would be as well.

My brother would get pissed at me if I slept too long in the car! He started showing signs of my dad's genetic predisposition to sleeping only 4 hours a night early on.

Before I could drive, I would virtually sleep the entire car ride. My brother, who is 7 years old than me, would start showing his bafflement at my ability to sleep such long stretches when he was around 16. Coincidentally, that was right around the time, he started driving a bit to give my dad a break.

They both would then give me verbal jabs over my ability to sleep through basically anything. I think they were secretly pissed that I could enjoy a beautiful uninterrupted 8 blissful hours of sleep and neither one of them could get more than 4 at a stretch.

It was an odd family dynamic.

[TwilightGardener]

17. It's envy. My husband can shut his body down like a machine and sleep wherever he is, no matter

what is going on. Meanwhile, any disruption to my life or routine (like staying in a hotel) means I can't sleep. And forget sleeping in the car--can't abdicate my annoying "copilot" tendency!

[coalition_unwilling]

10. A beautiful evocation of what I hope are some at least

semi-fond memories: "Just extra ballast"

Reminds me of a little joke I tell about colleges and universities that would run great if it weren't for those damned pesky students

[MineralMan]

19. After I was an adult, I made that same

drive, but stopped at all the roadside attractions, trading posts, and other places we never got to see when we were kids.

I understand why he was so destination oriented at the time. Those visits with my grandparents were always short, and my parents wanted as much time as possible for the actual visit, so the drive was just a means to an end. Still, we missed a lot of things during the drive. Children often have different goals than their parents, it seems.

[Javaman]

21. If ours were to see my grandparents, I could completely understand...

but ours were the typical "family" vacation.

My dad, to put it very very very very politely, was not an easy person to live with.

Needless to say, after the "family vacation" many of us siblings needed a vacation to get over the family vacation.

[laundry_queen]

32. I've often said I was going to do the same thing

Make the same drive in 3 days instead of 1, and stop at all the attractions. Thankfully my parents weren't that awful, but my eyes were really opened when I made the same trip to my grandparents' house with my aunt and uncle. We left at a normal time (9 am instead of 3:30 am) and we stopped in every town and went to every attraction, and found the out-of-the-way quaint restaurants. I had a BLAST. We even spent the night in a hotel and swam in the pool in the MORNING after SLEEPING IN. LOL, I remember telling my parents about how wonderful it was and they tsk tsk'ed at my 'weird' aunt and uncle and mumbled something about how they always had 'too much time on their hands'. My parents were always hell-bent on getting to my grandparent's BEFORE supper. Why it made a difference, I'll never know.

My parents generally stopped often for potty breaks (thanks to my mom's addiction to coffee), but it was in to the washroom quickly and get the hell out and back into the car. There was one time when my dad and brother and I were travelling through southern Saskatchewan and I REALLY had to go. We passed 1 gas station and my dad got picky and told me there were more up ahead. He was wrong. I had to hold it for another 3 hours. I thought I was going to die. My mom - who was on a business trip and met us at our destination - yelled at my dad for not stopping and letting me go on the side of the road. The truth was I wouldn't let him - I was a teenager and there wasn't anywhere to GO. No trees to hide behind (anyone who had been to southern Sask knows what I'm talking about, LOL), and I was with my dad and brother. At the time I'd have rather died holding it than squat on the side of the road. Dumb teenagers.

[KurtNYC]

5. Robots don't understand bladders

[canEHdian]

12. My Thought Exactly!

Ahnold might know why we cry, but Mittbot doesn't know why we piss.

[KurtNYC]

15. perhaps they could tell Mittbot that we piss to "avoid rust"

that might make more sense to his software.

[Octafish]

9. Authoritarian Dad

Vulture Capitalist

Tax Dodger

Pretend State Trooper

High School Bully

Those are the nice things.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. The people around Romney must constantly be in the mood to relieve themselves

gyrating before him as they hold it in, desperately awaiting the next officially sanctioned bathroom visit. I wonder if in the Romney family they have the policy of raising your hand when you simply have to go, like prisoners asking permission of prison guards.

[RandiFan1290]

20. My Dad wasn't a scumbag

We got to stop when we had to go and the dogs rode in the car with us.

Thanks Dad!

[Warpy]

27. The dog was left in a kennel unless we were moving

in which case the dog rode with me in the back. My father was a traveling salesman when I was little, so he tended to put the blinders on and just go, stopping for gas and meals but that was it so I knew I had to go even if I didn't have to go whenever the car stopped.

The exception was Georgia. My dad never wanted to stop anywhere in Georgia, said it was just asking for trouble.

[ecstatic]

22. Did they wear diapers?

As someone who traveled a lot with my family, I know that the "predetermined stops" idea would never work in the real world, unless diapers were involved... or did they pee in cups? lol

[LadyHawkAZ]

23. Geez...

When I was little, we used to drive cross-country once a year to see family back east. We stopped for EVERYTHING- gas, potties, historical markers, parks, interesting-looking buildings, vista points, whatever. My dad joked about the van automatically pulling itself to the side at the sight of a brown historical-marker sign. What's the point of a road trip if you never leave the road?

Romney is an ass, all the way to the bone.

[goclark]

24. My experience was the same ~ we drove all the way to CA

Last edited Tue Aug 7, 2012, 11:26 PM - Edit history (1)

in the 1950's. My precious Blue Eyed grandfather drove " Little Brown" me and my " light skinned" Mom from MD to PA to pick up my " Little Brown" grandmother. He drove us all the way to California.

We looked like a box of crayons.

My Little Brown grandmother had a heart condition and got sick in Missouri , it was so hot and no air condition .
Her heart medication would not work.

Because we were Negro, every place we pulled into, there was " "No Room at the Inn" for "Little Brown Me" and my Sweet "Little Brown grandmother." I was so afraid because I was in the back seat with grandma and trying to keep her cool with a wet towel.

Grand Dad was getting so upset and then he saw a tiny run down motel and he tried once again.

The owner came and looked in the car and spotted us in the back. With mean little eyes, he asked my grandfather " Who are those two ?"

My wonderful grandfather had to tell a lie.... "That is My Maid and that is her little girl."

The mean little man still seemed suspicious but said " OK, you and your daughter can have Room 4 and the two in the back can have that shack in the back."

My grandfather had tears in his eyes as we took grandma to the shack, she called me her " Little Nurse" as I tenderly gave her the medicine and wiped her face to keep her cool.

When we pulled off the next morning Grandfather drove as fast as he could and after many days we finally got to California!

I still have old photos of ny precious granddad stopping and taking pictures and pointing out the beauty of each state.

Unlike RMoney, he let us have potty breaks and rest breaks and the experience of a lifetime.

I still cry Happy Tears When I Recall That Trip.

[LadyHawkAZ]

25. I'm glad your grandfather was able to still make the trip a wonderful one.

There's nothing quite as awesome as a cross-country road trip done right.

[goclark]

30. Thanks! He was extra special

and always wanted to bring lovely experiences to his family.

Every Christmas eve, he would dress up as Santa and "deliver" our presents to us by the Tree the next day. It was years later when he told me that he put a little record player in the room next to mine on Christmas Eve and had it playing " Jingle Bells" while he said Ho, Ho, Ho!

When I was about 7 yrs., he took me downtown.
At that time, Colored people had to be all dressed up to go to downtown Baltimore.
I was all dressed up, tiny purse, hat and gloves.
A nice White Lady stopped us and said,

" What a beautiful little girl, is that your Maids child?"

My blue eyed grandfather looked right at her and politely said, " No, I am proud to say I am a Colored Man and this is my sweet granddaughter."
He tipped his hat and nicely said," Good Day."

[LadyHawkAZ]

33. I worked as a hotel maid when I was 17

There was a group of developmentally disabled folks that worked there, with a supervisor.

I sat outside talking to one of them one day, for some reason, about how beautiful Colorado was. He started asking me about what other places around the country were like, and I racked my memory for awhile to tell him about them. Finally I asked him if he'd ever traveled and he said no. He had never been out of the county. He wasn't expecting to, either.

That conversation has stuck with me and I drag it out whenever I'm hosting a pity party. Nothing else in my life, ever, brought home to me just how lucky I have been as that one little talk.

[99th_Monkey]

26. Fortunately for Mitt, dogs and children don't vote.

but lots of people who see this shit DO, so not so fortunate after all.

[JohnnyLib2]

28. Dang, I thought all dads said "use the coke bottle," at least on guy-trips.

Some skill was involved.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

29. My Dad would stop to buy ice cream

We would stop any any chance. However, we were in the UK and it wasn't that far.

[RZM]

31. I've certainly been there

I remember asking my mother to pull over on our way to an airport over an hour away once. She said:

'We can't, because there might not be an on-ramp to the highway.'

I said:

'I'm pretty sure there's a frigging on ramp, given that we're on a major interstate and there's a million signs telling us to pull over and buy stuff here.'

She didn't stop.

[cali]

34. My father wouldn't drive with us. He'd stick my mother with four kids

She did the driving. We spent the month of August on vacation. My dad joined on weekends. Looking back, I don't think it was any kind of vacation for my mother. She put an end to it the summer I was 13. No more family vacs after that.

[goclark]

35. Thanks for sharing

your experience with us ~