A few weeks back, my wife Kim was in Chicago for a couple days in the office. I’m usually pretty stressed out when she heads out of town these days. I’m a good Dad, but she’s the glue. My role is mostly to improvise around the house and keep everybody happy. Basically, I give zerberts and hand the kids upside down. But when Kim is out of town I need to be the full-time parent which is a much more difficult job. I get anxious leading up to those days. How will I get our 1 year old to bed while also watching our 3 year old? How will I shower in the morning? More than anything, how will I sleep? When Kim was in Chicago recently though, it was only one week after she had been in Toronto for 2 days. So I was still recovering. Things have also been really busy with work so there was some general exhaustion.
Now that I’ve laid down the excuses, here’s what happened. I was backing the minivan out of the garage, throwing in a DVD, stressing about leaving our youngest at home with the nanny, and as always thinking about work. At which point I backed straight into our nanny’s new car. It was super loud but didn’t seem to bother my son. I asked him to hang tight while I went to talk with the nanny. She was visibly shaken (as was I) but was also super cool about it. I told her not to worry and that we’d take care of everything. I felt and still feel like such an ass.
Anyway, at first I thought I’d pay cash but then I did some googling and was reminded that simple little dents (which is what this was) can be up to a few grand to fix. So then I thought, why pay for insurance if you aren’t going to use it. I called my agent at Amica insurance and they were great. Said our premiums wouldn’t go up if the total cost of repairs came in below $1,500. We’re fortunate not to have any incidents on our record so that is helpful. Then they went on to coordinate everything directly with our nanny and offered to call me and allow me to pay the difference if the costs went above $1,500. I just received a call from the claims agent to inform me that the final costs look to be around $1,400. The best part is, we don’t even have to pay a deductible because while I skimped out on our collision deductible ($1,000) there is no deductible at all for liability. I guess I never really even understood how auto insurance worked.
I’m thinking about calling up my agent to see if she can sell me more parent dummy insurance. I do stupid things all the time. These days mostly related to having a demanding career and 2 little dudes at home. Backing into cars is one thing, but what about all the other casualties of exhaustion and mental overload?
