Chauffeur Laid Off
Mom desperately seeking job security
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Family on Monday, June 30, 2008 8:45 AM
I was recently laid off from a job I’ve held since September, 1991 when my employer announced that he was no longer in need of my services. The position in question – chauffeur for my eldest son, Eric.
I can’t complain that my lay off came as a surprise, but I’m still feeling the pain associated with giving up a role that has been integral to my identity for over sixteen years. Eric, you see, is the proud owner of a brand new California Driver’s license. Although we procrastinated over six months beyond his sixteenth birthday, the inevitable happened when Eric passed the driver’s license examination on his first try. As he and his Dad strode out the door on their way to the DMV, I secretly wondered whether praying for him to fail the test to buy Mom some more time behind the wheel would be a venial sin. In the end, when he passed with flying colors, I found myself both proud and devastated.
For sixteen years, driving Eric and his brother Adam has been a major part of my day. Since I work from home, I’ve also always been the driver who gave everyone else’s kids a ride as well, so I’m missing my surrogate sons now too. I’ve spent so many hours driving to field trips and sitting next to football fields waiting for practice to be dismissed that I should be happy about Eric’s newfound vehicular independence. But, strangely, I’m not – I miss those moments when he would pile into my car immediately after school or practice, smelly and tired but full of stories of the day’s adventures. On some days, my car made so many trips to our Catholic school parking lot that I felt it could drive itself to St. Anthony’s.
I realize that I should be feeling happy about the extra minutes added to my day now that I’m not shuttling Eric and his buddies to tennis practice or the next band practice – I can use this time productively, right? Also, Eric by no means has free reign with the family car and still has to ask for permission to drive himself around. But something has fundamentally changed in my life. Every time I see him grab the keys and head out the door, my silent prayers for his safety accompany him and I see him take more giant steps to all the future holds for him.
Thank goodness his thirteen-year-old brother still needs a ride! Job security, at least for the next three years!
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