When routine demands too much from you, you may dream about running away, even if for a few hours, just to catch your breath.

Well, a woman shares how she escapes for one hour every day from life’s demands by sitting in her car and telling everyone she’s stuck in traffic.

She feels guilty about it, though.

Let’s read the whole story and see what people are saying about it.

I sit in my car for an hour after work and tell everyone it’s “traffic.” It’s the happiest part of my day.

I park a couple blocks from home, kill the engine, and just… exist.

No radio, sometimes a podcast, sometimes I stare at a leaf on the windshield.

I text “traffic” to the family group chat and sit there like a raccoon pretending to be a functioning adult.

It started during a rough week. I told myself I needed five minutes to decompress so I wouldn’t bring the office home. Five minutes became fifteen, then an hour.

Now that quiet metal box is the only place where nobody needs anything from me.

But she feels guilty about some things.

Here’s the part I’m not proud of: I’ve missed dinners. I’ve let calls ring out.

I’ve walked in with a tired smile and a lie about a stalled truck on the highway (there’s always a stalled truck somewhere, even when I’m nowhere near a highway).

I’m not cheating. I’m not job-hunting. I’m just exhausted and addicted to being unreachable.

I think I’m scared that if I say “I need an hour to myself,” people will hear “I don’t love you.”

So I picked the coward’s version, silence and excuses.

She’s also afraid to tell them.

It feels harmless, but it isn’t. It chips away at trust, and I can hear it in the little pause before they say “okay.”

I’m confessing because I don’t want the happiest part of my day to be hiding.

I’m going to tell them the truth and ask for a real boundary: one hour after work, phone on Do Not Disturb, then I show up fully.

If they say no, at least I finally said something real.

If anyone else does the car-park thing: you’re not a monster. But the quiet hits different when it isn’t stolen.

She’s doing everyone good by taking time to emotionally regulate.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

A nice story.

Exactly.

This person has a different take.

Something else to consider.

She’s definitely not alone in this.

Being always reachable is a modern thing.

Everyone needs to be offline and rest!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.