Where's Mom's Car? When Every Kid Can Drive

Hi friends, once your kids are old enough to drive a car or a scooter or a microcar, it happens on plenty of weekends and school breaks that the whole family is out at night at the same time. The other evening, my husband and I went out for Thai food on the spur of the moment (we can do that again these days, no planning ahead, no babysitter), and when we got back home, my car was missing from our driveway.

So we asked in the family WhatsApp group: “Um, where exactly is Mom’s car?” Now, the trunk of that car has two seats that fold up to turn it into a seven-seater (fantastically handy for soccer runs), so our kids (all adults by now, and all licensed to drive) had apparently decided to head out with their friends for chicken (no silverware, but gloves!)…

“Where’s Mom’s car?”

“We’re in XY,” came the reply. Aha. “But it’s MY car, you could ask first, ya know?! Did you fill it up? It was totally empty” (because our village gas station, sadly, hasn’t had any diesel for days). “Sorry, needed seven seats,” came the offhand answer. Yeah, yeah, I get it, but still. “Haven’t filled it up yet, maybe we’ll go in a bit.” Mm-hmm.

It’s a real adventure when every single family member can suddenly head off in every direction. Sometimes I’m honestly glad when they share their location on Snap Map, so I can at least roughly guess, every now and then, who is where.

“Can you guys go fill it up, then?”

“Okay, go ahead and fill the tank all the way,” I wrote to the group, and their dad followed up with: “Diesel * Diesel * Diesel,” because an engine failure on top of everything would really shred our nerves right now. “Of course, we know,” came the answer. Pros at work. Total experts.

But phew, seven teenagers out in the evening, a brand-new driver at the wheel, and an empty tank… that’s not exactly a sleep aid for parents at night. So we were instantly happy when we heard, in the middle of the night, the front door click shut and the stairs creak in every possible direction, which meant: everyone’s home safe.

“Find the mistake”

The next morning the bedroom doors were closed, which for the dad, who doesn’t have Snap Map, was the important sign that really everyone who belongs here was back home (the stair noises could have come from just one kid, after all). The front door was shut but not locked. Well, it happens. Everyone was tired. Maybe a little wound up.

And then the phone pinged again, and the family group lit up early in the morning with a photo of the side of my car. The fuel door (the little flap on the outside) was closed, but the fuel cap (the screw-on cap for the diesel opening) was dangling out on its little tether. And what did the dad write underneath?

Not: “Have you lost your minds, kiddos?!” but “Find the mistake.” And who was the first to slap a heart on the photo?! The first kid, in person. When the next one woke up, they added a “HAHAHA huh” and a “Thought I closed it right, I’m a beginner, guys, a little understanding please.”

And yes, that’s one way to solve problems. And to stay warm with each other despite all the criticism. Personally, I just laughed my head off and sent up three quick prayers of thanks that everyone had made it home safe. What’s a dangling fuel cap on a car borrowed without asking compared to that?