by Hope
The twins started learning to drive right at 10 years ago this fall. And since that date, I have been sharing my car with one or two or even three children at a time. I’ve taught them all to drive, given them access to the car once they are licensed, had them chauffer me because they want to drive, chauffeured them to work and school when I needed the car, and so on and so forth.
10 years of being constrained by sharing my car. (To be clear, this is not a complaint, it’s just what we do as parents.)
The last couple of years has been Beauty…her to work, her to school, or her using the car for fun and errands.
I’ve had to make sure she was able to get to work by 9:30am and picked up at 6pm-ish. And you don’t really notice the limitations that puts on you until it’s gone.
Beauty Bought a Car
Last week, Beauty bought herself a car. She’d been saving since February. And was ready.
And that released me from my final child sharing car responsibility after 10 years!
Freedom to Go
She had until the next day to get her insurance settled. Once she confirmed that was done, I started untangling myself…
No More Extra Driver
I called our auto policy and removed her as a driver on my car/my policy. It only saves about $89 but I’ll take it. We all know this is the biggest bill I have so $89 helps.
No More 9:20am Alarm
I’ve had an alarm set on my phone for 9:20am for the last year. Wherever I was, whatever I was doing, I need to either get home or prepare to take Beauty to work. This mostly came into affect when I work mornings my part time job in catering (2-3 days a week.) I would need to stop what I was doing, let the team know, clock out, run home, drive her to work, and then return to my job. It was never an issue or a burden. It’s just what had to be done.
Dinner Anyone
And now, I can go to dinner 🙂 No, but really, needing to be in town to pick her up from work around 6pm meant no dinners with friends in Atlanta, etc. Or very rarely. I always had to think it through…could she get home okay, was it going to be too cold, too hot, raining? But now, I’m free. I can go, see, do as I want too. So dinner anyone?
Another Transition
Saturday, I just left…I went to a macrame 101 class in a neighboring town, I went to the mall and walked around (no I didn’t spend a time, just walked), I just went…and it was so weird to not have to worry about anyone other than myself. It was also a little sad. I’m sure the web world will take this as a complaining post, but in reality, it’s just another transition I am adjusting to. You just don’t think about these things as a mom until they happen. And suddenly you have all this time, all this freedom. And absolutely no idea what to do with it.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.