Musical Cars

Our vehicle situation is pretty crazy right now. When we were looking for a nanny, we made sure to ask that any interested candidates have a car since we knew we would need them to pick up Chatterbox from school. Luckily our fabulous nanny had her own car and lived very close to us, which made for a lot less stress in the mornings. Fast forward 1 year and add Giggles starting school and a new baby to the mix. Pile on top of that the fact that our nanny's car is in need of major repairs and that she has been sharing her car with her sister and that she moved to another county. Sound complicated? But wait! There's more...the nanny's car, an older model Ford Explorer, doesn't have a center seat belt in the back seat which means that she can't have 3 car seats installed. This is a problem since she now needs to pick up both Chatterbox and Giggles from school with the baby in tow.

We toyed with the idea of buying her a car for use with the afterschool pickup, but of course we were trying to avoid the added expense. Not to mention it just seems so excessive to me (and we already know that I am fighting a daily battle with the mommy guilt that we are paying someone else to do the things I should be doing). So we had the bright idea of having a center seat belt installed in her car so that she could accommodate all 3 kiddies. Well, it sounded like a brilliant fix until we got to the dealership and discovered that her back seat is not a bench, but 2 individual seats that are connected, so a center seat belt can't properly be installed. You still with me?

So. Things were fine over the summer because I was home on maternity leave and took my car to drop off and pick up the girls from school, but...last week was my grand return to work. What to do? What to do? We decided to try out me catching a ride with hubby in the mornings and him dropping me to the Metro which I could take to work. That way the nanny could use my car to do the drop off and pick up. Aside from the fact that I feel even worse because I don't even get to drop off the girls to school and interact with their teachers, etc. , the other problem is that hubby has a shorter work schedule than I do and so it ends up with me bolting out of the office about 15 minutes earlier than I'm supposed to, running to the Metro, him picking me up, and us speeding home to relieve the nanny before her set 10-hour shift is over. Whew.

Not complicated enough? You're right. There's even more. This week hubby found out that the brakes on his truck are shot and that until he gets everything repaired (for the low, low price of $1,000) he absolutely cannot drive it. Luckily, today the nanny was able to borrow a car from a friend that can take 3 car seats, and so hubby drove my car today.

Sheesh. Talk about trying to make it work.