Tuesday, August 26, 2008

What would you do?

I have a little dilemma. Driving Jade to and from Riverton Elementary twice a day five times a week just wouldn't be prudent, so I arranged a carpool. All of last year I drove every morning and the other mom picked up in the afternoons. This worked out perfectly considering my piano lesson schedule. A couple weeks ago we added another mom to the arrangment. She drives two mornings and one afternoon each week. After picking up/dropping off Jade a few times I noticed that her vehicle drips a little oil in our driveway. Nate's extremely particular about this. I have a piano parent who drives several different vehicles to piano lessons... ALL of which drip oil. It makes Nate absolutely crazy. He's told me over and over that I need to do something about it. The problem is, I can't stand the thought of making them feel bad. After all, these are people I care about... and need to maintain a relationship with. Offending them is simply not an option. The first carpool mom told me yesterday that she's going to arrange some after school classes for her kids and won't be carpooling anymore. That means if I don't do something about it, I'll have new oil drips in my driveway every day of the school week! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

5 comments:

Monika said...

This may seem silly, but make up some excuse that you have to have "Rules of the Road" to keep your neighbors happy with the traffic from the studio at your house -- a requirement of Riverton City. Ha Ha. You can tell her that cars can only pull up in front of your house and then continue in the same direction (whatever direction she is coming from). They are not to pull in the driveway and go in reverse.

Steph said...

Might be a pain but you could just wait by the curb when you know it is about time she is coming.

And that is a rule we have at preschool...no cars in the drive way. Good Luck!

House of Mellor said...

I would just share the stress. I would say," sometimes it is so hard to keep harmony in the home. My husband is flipping out over oil drippings on our driveway and how am I suppose to monitor oil and keep up with three kids. I would say to keep him happy I am asking everyone to pull infront of the house to drop off kids. I know it is silly for all I know it could be my mother inlaw (to get a little laugh). I bet the car pool mom has no idea her car is dripping. I think everyone has things that bother their husband and she should understand. Honestly if she doesn't understand than it is her problem not yours.

Or you could leave some orange cones at the end of the driveway and the kids bikes in the drive way each day so they will naturally pull infront of the house.

Lizz said...

A lot of good advice so far. We had an oil free driveway until BJ bought a truck from his brother (who had to sell it because making payments from jail wasn't going to be easy...anyway ...) and now it is just AWFUL! He says just sprinkle some sawdust on it and it will suck it right out. (then why doesn't HE do it???) maybe if you put some sawdust down as well as some construction cones and maybe some caution tape for a few days they will get the hint and you won't have to say anything!

Shannon said...

I'd tell Nate that if it bothers him so much, he can say something. My guess is that he would totally take a soft approach once he turned to face the oil-dripper. At any rate... the car and the oil aren't your problem in the first place.