Parking is the pits
Every milestone presents its own set of unique problems. Take, for example, the fact that we now are a family of four drivers. With Daughter #2 now a full-fledged, license-carrying driver, we found ourselves facing the "can I borrow the car" dilemma.
This was a minor hurdle most of the time. I happily let her borrow the car to go to work. I cheerfully agreed to let her pick me up at the end of my day. I even looked on the bright side of things when I had to walk home because I couldn't track her down for a ride.
Somewhere along the way, however, there came the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. I'm not sure what caused this revelation, but one day I decided it was time for her to find her own transportation.
She and her father were ecstatic. They had been waiting for this day. For Daughter #2 it was a rite of passage — a leap to the next step of maturity. For her father it was the Super Bowl of all recreation — shopping for a car.
Without expounding on the shopping experience, let's just say Daughter #2 now has a car of her own. This is where rivalry rears its ugly head.
Daughter #1 has been making frequent weekend trips home lately. When she does, she insists on resuming her "place" in the family — that includes her spot in the driveway.
Since both girls work on the weekends, there's a constant revolving-door atmosphere in our home. We're never sure who's working when and apparently, they haven't figured out the art of "friendly" communication about this matter.
Like small children, they bicker and fight, plot and scheme. They argue, disagree, cuss, and discuss who has the right to park in the driveway.
One may park at the street-end of the driveway, keeping anyone else from parking behind her. They may block each other in and hide the extra keys. They've gone to diabolical extremes to maintain their parking positions.
Each daughter has a valid point, a logical explanation about the pecking order of the driveway. Being a firm believer in "working things out," I have refused to get involved in this argument. However, when they woke me up Saturday night to complain about the parking situation, I may have muttered something about not caring if they parked in the front yard.
I'm confident this will work itself out in time. After all, they're both intelligent individuals, capable of reason and compromise. If you drive by and see their cars parked on the front lawn, you'll know they finally decided to listen to their mother.
— DONNA BERNHARDT
