I’m thinking eHarmony might be more effective

I’m sure you’ve seen them, those little stickers people put in their car’s rear window indicating their family’s composition? I’m not sure when that trend started, but we first began seeing them up here maybe three years ago. Which probably means the trend is all but dead in Southern California.

In any case, it’s pretty popular here, all those little white decals of a man, a woman, various assortments of boys and girls, and often a dog and/or a cat trailing at the end. I’ve seen the Disney variation where all the little people are wearing Mickey Mouse ears. I’ve also seen the Hawaiian version in which everyone is wearing leis or board shorts or hula skirts.

There are a couple of cultures in our county that tend to have large families. Like double-digit children. Luckily they all seem to drive enormous SUVs so there is plenty of window space for all the stickers.

We were in the Costco parking lot the other day and I saw a variation I hadn’t seen before. There was a woman, then a space, then a girl, then a boy, then a cat. It was sad and funny at the same time, that glaring space. That “Looking for a Husband and Father to My Children” space. That “Come Complete My Family” space. I guess it could have been a divorce situation, where Dad was literally scraped out of the picture. But Mom was flush with the left edge of the window and people here seem to unanimously stick to tradition and put the man figure first in the line-up. No, I really think that space was filled with hope.

A very interesting peek into someone’s life through something as random as stickers in a car window.