Before I had kids, I didn’t understand the drive thru. Yes, I used it occasionally on road trips, but in day-to-day life, there was no appeal. What’s the big deal, I thought? Just park and go in.

Then I had kids and everything changed.

Laziness isn’t the issue. Getting out of the car is. Especially with a child who would rather play hide-and-seek behind the condiment counter than stand in line. Or with a child who, just minutes before, was screaming and arching her back to resist being buckled (in hopes of returning to the swings). No way am I going to unbuckle her! And what about all those times a child has fallen asleep in the car? Until now, I had to make do with an Americano from Starbucks.

Thankfully, now there’s a better option. I just read that Panera is opening a new location in Denver today with a drive-thru window. I did some checking, and it turns out that while this is the first in Colorado, there are 30 nationwide. Hats off to the person (a mom, perhaps?) who came up with this.

So now instead of caffeine with lots of calcium, I can order a bowl of the cumin-spiked black bean soup for me and, for the kiddos, a grilled cheese (with organic cheese, no less) on whole-grain bread and organic squeezable yogurt. Sure, it’s not something I’ll do every day, or even every week. But if I had a dollar for all the times these past eight years when I lamented the lack of healthy drive-thrus, I’d be — as the saying goes — rich.