How To Successfully Share A Family Car
In a perfect world, each driver in the family would have a fancy new car to drive. That would be awesome! However, your family might be counted among the many other families that don't have that luxury. If you're having to share one car, here are some things to consider that might be helpful.
Have A Family Meeting - You know what? It might be really great to start your family meeting with a pep talk about gratitude. Don't make it preachy, though. Instead, lighten things up with some humor. Consider showing pictures of families in the olden days that had to go places in a buggy or families on bicycles. After some laughs, get down to the business of how you're going to make the sharing of the car work.
- Obviously, the bread winner has to have transportation to and from work, so that person gets first dibs at the car keys.
- Work with a calendar. Establish the rule that important events come first. Also, this is a good time to talk about flexibility. Sometimes the best plans have to be tweaked!
- Driving privileges mean that drivers share in the responsibility of helping each other. If a younger brother or sister needs to be at a music lesson, then the teenager who drives might be in charge of being chauffeur before heading for fun.
- Don't forget to pencil in time for family fun!
Establish The Importance Of Maintenance - Besides the everyday use of the family car, it's great when each driver can own responsibility for taking care of it.
- One really good idea is to always keep the gas tank at least halfway full. Consider keeping a credit card which can be used only for fuel in a very safe place in the car.
- If the family car is being shared, consider having a once-a-week car cleaning event. Even younger children will have fun doing their share of making the car look orderly and nice.
- Especially with new drivers, it's important to go over things like keeping windshield fluid in the container, checking tires, and making sure that if a little light comes up on the dashboard, that means that there might be problems.
- Consider establishing a relationship with a shop (such as Marathon -Sleepy Hollow) that can maintain your car or repair it, if that becomes necessary. You'll have the peace of mind that factory-trained technicians will be working on your car. They will be using state-of-the-art tools and equipment to diagnose problems and to repair them. In addition, a great auto repair and maintenance shop will have replacement parts in stock. That means that your car will be in and out of the shop a lot faster, since parts won't have to be ordered. The technicians will also advise you when it's time to get new tires, and they'll make recommendations on the best tires for you to purchase.
Congratulations on making a plan for sharing your family car.