August 01, 2007

what do you do when...

** you have all three kids in the car - the 3 month old and the 1 year old are sleeping
** you have 2 bottles in the car for the baby but they are both dirty.  This is not supposed to be an issue because you are only driving 20 minutes from your mother's house to yours
** it is 99 degrees outside and blazing sun
** your husband is in a very far away place
** your father-in-law is ALSO in a very far away place
** your brother is 1 hour away

You are 6 miles from home.  You have a left rear tire pressure of 0 according to your tire monitoring system (you get to watch it drop from 20 when it started warning you to 0 as you drove off the off-ramp for the Dulles Toll Road)

There are NO males that can come quickly to your aid that you know.  EVEN if they could, you would be on the side of the road in BLAZING HEAT AND SUN with an infant and a run-away toddler ( I am assuming it is not safe to change a tire on the car w/the kids IN the car, which also means, in this heat, the car would have to be left running).

The 2 females you COULD call could only do the following: drive to where you are and SIT with at least one of your kids while you drive THEIR car home and retrieve your other vehicle that is big enough to hold everyone.  This also means installing car seats in the BLAZING HEAT AND SUN should you choose this answer.

All the other males you know are
   a.  at work
   b. also at least 1 hour away

Many of the phone numbers you might need to call random friends for help anyway are stored on your OLD cell phone, as luck would have it.

So what do you do?

3 comments:

Charlie on the PA Turnpike said...

First off, did the tire go flat, or did the diagnostics misreport it? A quick pull-off the road and eyeball would be my first call.

Secondly (and more importantly) no gal should EVER be without a AAA service or the like. Maybe you don't call more than once every 2 years for service, but on a day like this its worth it. That I said 'no gal' may be chauvanistic, but you asked.

I have changed a tire with a young child inside; block the tires properly and there's no danger to the kid. Engine running, too, is not a problem.

Hoping this was more of a hypothetical question than a real one, I trust you and yours got through this ok.

enjanerd said...

I hope you had Fix-a-flat. That'll at least get you home and then you have time to get backup for the kids before dealing with the tire. I think it's usually included in most emergency car kits.

Otherwise, I second the call to AAA.

Call one of the numbers you have memorized and hope they can look up any other numbers you want. Or 411.

Corinne said...

AAA!

AAA!

I love them... and yes, I've gotten a flat as my son slept, and the AAA guy was able to safely change it without waking him up. Sooo... That's what I'd do.