Being a Quitter is AWESOME!

I threw in the towel … I turned in my resignation and have officially retired from a job I was never qualified to do from the get go.

Who knew being a quitter could be so grand … And so freeing!??!

It takes stubborn, type A personalities a good beating to come to a place of stopping the insanity.

The job: teaching a child to drive; more specifically, MY child.

After much thought and fatigue from the obvious, I devised a new plan; and it has worked like a charm. I gave up and accepted the inevitable. What a freeing mental permission slip to all who thought they had to personally do everything. Not true. J THANK YOU GOD!!

After retracting my claws from an incident about 2 weeks ago, I began thinking. It went like this:

I am attempting to teach my 16 year old daughter to be a good, safe driver. As we all know, female cycles get in sync when the females are in the same household. Evidently, this day was a “PMS Day” for both of us. Never a good thing when that happens AS the inexperienced, 16 yr old drives early in the morning and a squirrel runs out in the road AS we are topping a curved hill at the exact same time I take a huge gulp of coffee … helplessly sitting in the passenger seat.

I already had the “animal in the road talk,” and the talk about always slowing down when topping a hill while NEVER being in the oncoming lane during the hill topping. None of those talks stuck when the precious little squirrel scampered out in front of us. The curve in the hill was an added bonus and the mouth full of coffee preventing my scream was icing on the cake.

We did arrive safely, but she got out of the car crying and I felt like I was trapped under a pile of poop. I went home and dissected the situation.

After a few calls, I had lined up 1 person per day, at least one hour each day. DRIVING TEACHERS (with lots of patience and experience.)

Now, each day, a smiling face appears on our front porch and says, “Is she ready?”

 I smile excitedly and respond, “YES, she is!!” And then I keep smiling.

My daughter likes all of her driving instructors much better than me as her driving instructor … and I like her better too. All of our driving angels have given great words of encouragement and her confidence has come along as well. That gives me confidence.

She has driven on the interstates, back roads, night driving, rain, rain at night … Ahh, yes. They have done well. I do well sitting at home sipping a warm cup of tea and catching up on things I need to do. She and I have called it truths. She is mastering the skill of driving and I am learning when to try harder and when to quit.

It is so difficult to unveil those times when I need to talk versus the ones when I should keep quiet; when to act, react or “be still.”

I must say, I likey being still!

Kudos to all of the people who assured me that this is a common problem for parents and children. I was beginning to feel slightly (incredibly) inadequate. Sometimes, kids listen to other people more and better than their parents.

… I think I already knew that …

It’s quittin time! WHOOP WHOOP,

Kasi