I have been able to drive for over a decade now. It's a fortunate position to be in as many Londoners don't bother to learn to drive because public transport is so convenient. Since passing my test I have always had a car and had always been reliant on driving but in March 2013, my husband and I had to hand back his company car as he was leaving the company and we were left car-less ever since.
As I have mentioned public transport makes it easy to get to anywhere we need to go so this wasn't an issue. Then I fell pregnant and my in-laws couldn't cope with us being car-less so put my husband on their car insurance (again them also being Londoners means they don't use their cars much either). Since my son was born I was then also put on the car insurance but having not driven since 2013, I had been too scared to jump in front of the wheel. I know this may seem like an overreaction but people do crazy things on the road and it was daunting to have to remember everything whilst not getting into an accident. My husband kindly took me out so I could do some laps of a car park as I have also never driven an automatic car before. As I have slowly become more confident, I keep being asked why don't I drive my son here, or drive him there and again I have been too scared. He is my precious cargo and I am a rusty driver, I didn't want to put him at risk.
On Tuesday, my son was extremely unwell he couldn't keep down anything and started vomiting bile. For those who know my son, he is a waif of a baby. He has a little pot belly but he is still under 10kg so for him to constantly vomit you can imagine my concern. I called our potential non-emergency line and they advised to take him to hospital. How would I get him there? The pushchair and bus would take over an hour, a taxi would take 20ish minutes but would cost money and I didn't have cash or... I could drive. Because of a mixture of fear and concern I drove my son to hospital. Maybe he could read the situation and how scared I was but my son played and babbled to himself and there were no tears when he couldn't see me, so the car journey was completely stress free.
My son was eventually fine but I was elated. I had just managed to safely drive my son somewhere. This opened up a whole new world of places we could visit together and I finally felt confident I could do it. The following day I took us to a taster toddler gymnastics class but to get there via public transport would have meant over an hour's travel on three trains, I got there in 20 minutes by car. I should mention that the venue is under 5 miles away but there is no direct transport there. What a revelation!
I know I'm speaking like cars are a new thing I have just discovered but I was genuinely too scared to drive my son anywhere. Now I feel like we can truly explore and I couldn't be more excited about it especially just in time for Christmas.
~AB~
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