Commuting With Baby

I don't think we're going to have any car soon.  And I'm sure that while baby is growing up, she will have to commute with her father and me.

I enjoy commuting.  For the past six months, I started commuting again after eight years or so.  Last time, I commuted before this was when I was in college and enjoying living independently in Sampaloc.  Now that my CS wound is not that prone to tear or infection, I am able to commute using the jeepneys or tricycles.  I am not even sensitive to smog like I used to before.

But it's another story when I'm going to have to commute with my baby.  I think she will not be able to leave the house until she is seven without using the taxi.  I don't want my daughter to be exposed to air pollution which is so dense here in Manila.  If you could see some parts of Manila from a high ground, you would cringe on how air pollution has become so visible, it makes the atmosphere dark in its lower layers.  I did way back when I was in Sampaloc.  And so, I am afraid to expose my kid to that kind of pollution while she is growing up.

I have read and heard about lead poisoning a lot of times already.  So while my baby is still having her brain in the developing stages, I don't want any lead deposited in there somewhere.  Not all vehicle uses unleaded gasoline.  I think our Honda vehicles are the only ones which requires unleaded fuel.  The rest needs the premium or diesel gasoline.

And so, when I have to travel with my kid, we have no choice but to spend for taxi.  The new fare rate is going to be very hard for an average earner like me.  But it would be more hard if I let my kid sniff lead0filled air.

I am just particular on how cab seats are always dirty.  There was once when I hailed a cab, the back seat was so dirty, there were so many stains that I was afraid to sit on it.  If I'm going to travel with Via,  I would be forced to bring a picnic cloth or something like that (like the foldable banig) that we could sit on.

Some people say that when you ride a taxi instead of other PUVs, you are quite well-off sans your own car.  You are more glamorous that way.  But if you have to sit in a stained car seat cover without knowing what the heck they were from, you'd rather hail a jeepney instead.

If they're charging so much, I think we earn the right to complain so much.