Jump in, or we’ll be late!” Three girls fling in their school backpacks and we zoom off to another school. Two girls leap out, calling for their brother. The toddler, strapped in her car seat, keeps repeating “Whacka Bamba,” which is the hard-to-pronounce name of some fellow she keeps hearing about on the car radio.

Three children climb into the minivan, reach for bagels, and we head for the highway. A few minutes and much asphalt later, we pause to drop the second-youngest girl at her art class.