Ask any busy, harried parents of over-scheduled kids, and they will tell you:  Carpools are a godsend.

They allow you to get multiple kids to multiple places at the same time. They save you time and (gas) money.

Carpooling may be increasingly common now because more women are working, and more kids are doing extracurricular activities at younger ages, according to a recent Associated Press story.

“Without sharing the driving, parents say they couldn’t do all they want for their kids,” said Kara Corridan of Parents magazine.

Yeah, yeah. I get all of this. But here’s really why carpools are such a blessing, especially when it’s your turn to drive:  You get to be the ultimate fly on the wall, and listen to surprisingly unfiltered conversations between your kids and their friends. It’s the best place to get a vibe on what’s going on in their lives.

(It’s a funny thing that kids don’t notice carpool drivers. As a friend of mine described it: “It’s like you are the foreign cab driver who doesn’t speak the same language.”)

With kids on both ends of the tween spectrum, my husband and I hear the gamut of carpool conversations.

The 9-year-old boys do their share of poop-related jokes and humorous back-and-forths, such as this one in our baseball carpool:

“Know what my dad does for a living? He’s a brain surgeon. He opens up a flap on people’s heads, fixes the brain and puts the flap back on.”

“Your mom’s a doctor, too, right”

“No she’s not. She’s just a dentist.”

Driving around 12-year-old girls has proved to be a goldmine of gossip that’s way more enlightening. They talk about how one girl at practice wasn’t trying hard enough. They talk about who is “dating” whom. And about who got kissed under the bleachers at the football game Friday night!

It’s good dirt to get, and therein lies the dilemma:  Once you’ve heard things, what do you do with the information? 

Is there a carpool code? (Does what happens in the carpool stay in the carpool?)

One mom told me her rule: “I figure that whatever I hear in my car is fair game to repeat.”

Are there boundaries when it comes to over-sharing?  Are you being a nosy mom if you spill the beans about that kiss under the bleachers? Are you allowed to share nameless tales at a cocktail party?

What do you think when it comes to sharing carpool fodder?  Do you turn informer? Or keep mum?

Kavita Varma-White is a Seattle based writer and editor and the mom of two tweens. In between cheering on the sidelines for numerous soccer and baseball games, she is contributing editor for TODAYMoms.com and MSNBC.com.

"Like" TODAY Moms on Facebook, and follow us @TodayMoms