I had the delightful experience of bringing my three-year-old daughter on the train into Boston the other day. Her enthusiasm is contagious. She is delighted to see all the people and make comments about them, although sometimes a little too loudly. Yes, man does look like a beach ball, but shh…

Her excitement reminded me of my first train trips, when I came to Boston fresh out of college. I grew up in America’s Dairy Land where there are no subways and only limited public transportation. It was pretty much horse and buggy or beat up pick up truck. To me, the T was vibrant and thrilling.

Of course, I’m much older than three and I’m no longer a wide-eyed post-college student. I’m a mom. Now I look around at the fancy Airport T stop and notice how dirty the bright blue decorative beams have become. Did they not think about that when they designed it? There are layers and layers of grime sullying the architecturally delightful decor. The worst part is it looks like there’s no way to clean them! The posts are too high over the tracks and access is blocked by overhead wires. This is the way we greet visitors into our fair city? Isn’t that such a mom thing to say?

Maybe I should just take a cue from my daughter and make up a new song instead of focusing on the (lack of) cleaning habits at the MBTA.