Mom's Burnt Out Taxi Service

One of my daughters is going to be eligible to get her driver's license very soon. And I'm torn. On the one hand, I'm scared to death to let her drive a car. But on the other, I'm pretty close to having a meltdown over the endless shuttling of kids back and forth to work, practices, and friends' houses.

I feel like I'm driving from morning 'til night. I told my kids the other day that I might as well just camp out in the car, get a little battery-operated mini-fridge (if such a thing exists),a few changes of clothes, and they could just run out and jump in when it was time to go again. They thought that was hilarious.

The sad thing is I was only half joking. I've often thought I should get a laptop computer with WiFi, so that I could work while waiting for this one or that one to finish some activity, rather than driving home, squeezing a little work in, then jumping back in the car again to go fetch them.

My oldest has been driving for four years now and has been an excellent driver. So why am I so hesitant this time around? I guess I still see my younger two as my babies. It's hard to imagine them out in the world on their own. But that 16th birthday is approaching fast, and Mom will just have to give a speech and say a prayer and let them drive.