Confession: I used to think people who went to drive-thrus were lazy. But now that I’m the mom of a toddler who sometimes falls asleep in the car, or is having a meltdown, or is just too bundled up to envision dragging her out of the car to do a simple errand (or get a latte, let’s be honest, sometimes that IS a necessity) … a drive-thru can be a saving grace.

So I’m sorry to anyone I may have previously judged. You were in on some secret and now I feel like I’m part of the club. I get it now!

Today, for example, I was beyond grateful for my pharmacy’s drive-thru. Overnight, I broke out in pink eye. Yup, our house is apparently House of Contagion. Rocco was sick last week; Maya has chicken pox; now I have pink eye … and Luis is fighting a cold. I think we will be investing in Lysol stock this week 😉

Anyway, pink eye is mostly just annoying (I’ll spare you the details if you haven’t had it) but it is highly contagious and, therefore, doubly annoying: basically, it’s another quarantined illness til you’ve been on antibiotics for 24 hours (and eye is no longer showing symptoms).

When I explained the situation to my doctor — that I am home today with my chicken pox-infected daughter and my husband wouldn’t be able to come home til early afternoon to relieve me for an appointment (I was not about to bring HER to the doctor with me!) but that I was certain it was pink-eye (having had it quite a bit) — he called in the Rx for me.

Because I wanted to get on the antibiotic drop ASAP, I didn’t wait for Luis to come home — I just brought Maya with me. And then on the 3-minute drive to Meijer, she fell fast asleep … about  an hour and a half before her normal nap-time. As I stared at my Sleeping Beauty from the rearview mirror, I counted my lucky  stars that Meijer had a drive-thru pharmacy window for moments like these … when — even if she had been awake — we were too contagious to go inside and be around people.

Of course she woke up the moment we got home and told me she was no longer tired and wanted to play … but the point is, mission accomplished: Mama got her drugs and is on the mend, thanks to the mighty drive-thru pharmacy window!

Now excuse me while I go Lysol this whole house down on my lunch break.

How about you? What drive-thrus do you like to use?