Dear Urban Diplomat: My daughter refuses to get her driver’s licence
She says cars are bad for the environment but then asks me for rides. How can I get her to see the hypocrisy?
Dear Urban Diplomat, My adult daughter refuses to get her driver’s licence on environmental grounds. I raised her as a city kid, so it’s partly on me. My issue: she’s always asking me for rides—to IKEA, to her cat’s vet, to Pearson. She just told me that she and her husband are expecting this fall. They’re in their 30s, and neither of them can drive! I want to support her choices and be helpful, but I don’t want to be doing diaper runs and daycare drop-offs for the foreseeable future. Help? —Driving Miss Lazy, the Beaches
Despite the responsibility you feel as a parent, your kid’s choices aren’t on you. Learn to say no and set boundaries. Tell her you have the bandwidth for only, say, one automotive outing per month. As her big news gets out, her peers will be hassling her plenty for not being able to drive, so don’t feel the need to pile on. Without a personal chauffeur at her beck and call, she’ll either have to compromise her eco-ethics or learn to live with public transit.
