Lessons on avoiding the problem

I strongly dislike driving my husband's convertible Volvo for many reasons - it's too low to the ground compared to my SUV; it's difficult for me to see out of the back window and most importantly I know if I put a scratch in his precious baby that I am as good as done for.

Saturday night Blake had a date at the Bridgeport movie theater and asked me to drive him there. Not wanting to take my messy car, I took the Volvo. Drove there and back. Went around 8:30 to pick him up. Parked the car. Blake tried to open the door.

"I can't open the door," he said. "It's too close to the pole."

Parking at the apartment complex is a challenge because of the small spaces.

Worried about being too close to the pole and too close to the car on my left, I pulled closer to the curb - imagine the sound of fingernails scraping across a chalkboard and you'll get an idea of what it sounded like when the car's front end meet the curb.

"Oh xxxx!," I said as I backed up the car once again hearing the scraping sound.
Got out of car, looked at the undercarriage and saw a white spot about the size of my fist.

Being the great mom I am, I told Blake that let’s wait to tell dad until the morning. Note: Bryan wasn’t feeling too great that evening with swollen, infected eye.

Given the choice of any sort of disagreement and avoiding the problem – I generally chose the latter.
Sleeping that night wasn’t easy. I knew I wasn’t setting a good example for Blake.

So Sunday morning I went downstairs, looked at the car, saw the damage and went upstairs.

“Bryan,” I said. “I hit the curb last night and there is a white scratch.”

“Are you talking about a white spot on the undercarriage,” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I am sorry and I will pay for the damage.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You didn’t do that. That is from a sticker that was on the car. I have hit the curb a couple times myself.”

Why is it that people avoid problems when we all know eventually we have to deal with them?
I am guilty of procrastinating any bad news – for example I waited to take Kate’s car in to be fixed because I was worried that the diagnosis would be extremely expensive. Turns out it was a defective battery that was on warranty and the battery was replaced.

On the other hand, when it comes to chores I always do the ones I dread the most - cleaning the bathrooms, scrubbing sinks and taking out the garbage.

In the last week, there have been a couple examples where I avoided the truth only to find the truth was something I could deal with and much less stressful than worrying about what I was worrying about.

The way I have been dealing with bad news is like slowly pulling off a Band-Aid. From now on, I realize it’s just best to quickly rip it off and deal with whatever happens next. No more procrastinating.

No mattet how painful or expensive the truth may be.