When you're driving, you go into an atuopilot mode, and if your child is quiet, it's quite easy for you brain to get settled into the mindset that you're drving all by yourself. I've had it happen to me, but as soon as I step out, I realize that I have a kid in the back seat.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
