Growing
up I was quite used to the idea of only one car per family. With only one
parent there was no need for two cars. Then we went to live with our dad and
his wife, though we still had only one car with two working parents and several
kids in school. I’m thinking the only reason it worked was because it was a
small town and their respective places of work were within walking distance of
each other.
The
point is, I don’t remember any long drawn out conversations about who had to be
where when or who was able to do the driving to get whoever it was to where
they needed to be.
Now
forty years later I know of families which have multiple cars. At least
both parents have their own and sometimes one or more of the children do too.
Admittedly
there have been times when my husband and I had our own cars, like when we
first got married. Which of course we needed since we both worked about 30
miles from our home and in opposite directions.
However
most of our married life we’ve only had one vehicle at a time. When we’ve had
two it was because Jerry needed one for work and I still needed to be able to get
things done (like grocery shopping). But then most of the time we had two cars
it was because neither one of them had enough seats for our whole family.
There
were a couple of times where we had only one car and it was at least one, if
not two seats shy of holding all of us. One of those times our only vehicle was
a five passenger stick shift. We were a family of seven and I can’t drive a
stick. I’m positive my husband got sick of it because he replaced it with a van
fairly fast.
Currently
we have a five passenger sedan.
Since
only one of our children has moved out, we’re a family of six (not counting fur
and feather babies).
Now
this in and of itself isn’t bad because we don’t really all go someplace
together. In fact I can only think of a couple of times we’ve had more than
three people in the car and maybe one of those did we have five.
So
no, we don’t have a problem trying to figure out how to get all of us someplace
at the same time simply because it just doesn’t happen.
What
we do have an issue with is figuring out who needs to be where when and who
exactly is available to do the driving.
The
real fun part is when one child needs to be at point A on the hour and another
child needs to be at point B (clear across town) on the half hour. It’s at
least a half hour drive without traffic. There is always traffic, especially
when we’re rushed/in a hurry.
Seriously.
It comes down to, “This trip will take this much time and this one will take
this much time, so the overlap means someone has to drop off/pick up people for
several hours straight.” I’ve mentioned my being in the car for hours on end
before.
Recently
however, getting one child to her doctor’s appointments would require the car
being unavailable to other members of the family for several days.
One
child was totally not inconvenienced by the prospect.
The
other two were like, “Wait! What? How am I supposed to (insert whatever they
would need to get to or from in that time period).”
My
son finally decided his best option was staying with a friend for those few
days.
My
daughter railed, fought and argued about it until she finally pointed out we
had not two, but three drivers in the family. She then offered a solution which
didn’t leave her stranded or the family without a driver or vehicle. (Jerry
does have a truck, but he’s the only who can drive it.)
Her
solution may have solved her transportation issue but it created another problem.
Now
we have to leave our fur babies in the care of my husband and our youngest son.
I’m thinking we will have to be calling them at least twice a day to remind
them to get food and water to the poor things. Maybe more than that because the
dogs will need let out and the cat’s litter box will need cleaned.
Yeah,
it’s going to be an interesting trip.
Smile.
Make the day a brighter day.
