The other day something bad happened.
I’m not going to tell you what it was.
Let’s just say it involved an administrative oversight on my part, in a house-hold related matter, and it is going to cost us hundreds of dollars and if I’d been more on the ball then it would never have happened.
Okay, I am going to tell you. Of course I am. I can’t keep these kinds of secrets – except from my mother, and that’s purely a survival instinct.
I was driving back from a few days away with my youngest son when we came to one of those police set-ups where they pull you over and breath-test you and check your licence, etc. I was unconcerned. I hadn’t been drinking or speeding, I knew my licence was valid.
What I’d forgotten was the car registration.
It had expired four days previously.
Might as well have been forty days, or four hundred, as far as the police were concerned.
We’d had a challenging couple of weeks, with my newly-licenced daughter involved in an accident that mercifully left her unhurt – totally the other driver’s fault; he ran a red light – but the car rolled and was a write-off, and my husband was out of the country, so I’d been dealing with the insurance and the very shaky feeling of relief that our precious girl wasn’t injured – except for her confidence – and I’d completely forgotten that the re-registration papers had arrived.
My husband is due back from his trip any second. Now, I could probably get away with NOT telling him. He does our taxes, but I handle the bills and credit card statements. I’ve paid the registration now. I could just quietly pay the fine – there’s even an installment plan – and he need never find out.
But I know I will tell him. And I know he’ll be good about it, because I’m always good when he makes those administrative slips himself. He had an almost identical problem five years ago – his licence had expired a few days previously – really our luck with police roadblocks is not good in this area – and we’d had a challenging couple of weeks and he’d forgotten to renew it.
How about you? Do you confess when you’ve made this kind of a mistake? Who do you tell? Who do you keep it from? (I’m seriously not telling my mother.) Or is your life under such admirable control that these things don’t happen to you at all?
Hi Lilian,
I would tell him. Do you have a court date? The reason I ask is that in some instances, if you bring proof that you purchased the registration the fine will be forgiven.
My life is up and down. Sometimes I remember everything, other times I slip up. But keeping secrets from my husband would make me uncomfortable. And give me a stomach ache. He never overreacts. That would be me. He is the calm one.
Kathleen
P. S. The Mommy Miracle was one of my favorite books from 2011.
I’ve told him now, Kathleen, and he understood and was really good about it.
I don’t think there’s any way out of the fine, in our jurisdiction. Even though I’ve now paid the registration, I was driving an unregistered car and that’s that.
Thanks so much for telling me how much you liked The Mommy Miracle! If you’re an ebook reader, I have some other books listed on our Releases page here on the blog. Saving Gerda will be out in print next week, too, through Amazon.
My husband tends to be the one who always gets the tickets, fines, etc. But we usually tell each other things like this, we are both of the mind that Stuff* Happens! LOL And it tends to happen to us a lot, not necessarily through any fault of our own…we just seem to be unlucky a lot. The one thing that I am not on the ball about when it comes to bills and such is one of our bills that we cannot mail, but have to physically take to the company….I tend to forget it a lot…like every other month or more often. Thankfully they do not consider a bill ‘late’ until it is a week past due. Which has saved me a lot of late fees.
I’m glad I’m not the only one, Rhiannon! We are lucky and can pay most of our bills over the phone, some of them even 24/7, so if I remember at an odd moment I can usually take care of it right away.
Which reminds me, the phone bill is due…
Hi Lilian – don’t feel alone
Your post just reminded me I have forgotten to pay a speeding my DH received recently. I find I have to admit to things – like last week when I left the glove compartment open in my car and got a flat battery (As DH had asked me that night if I shut it after getting the manual out and I assured him I had and gave him a ‘look’) Road service came out and fixed it the next morning and DH might never have known I did it….. but I still told. Now, telling my mother things ….. maybe not 
Great post.
I guess it’s good that we’re more scared of our mothers than our husbands!
Glad my post gave you a timely reminder, and laughing about the flat battery, and the “look.”
It’s quiet here this week, isn’t it? I guess lots of us are off at RWA in Anaheim.
I always tell on myself! I think it’s better it comes from me than someone else. Besides I’m fearful of that thing called Karma.
Sounds like we’re all pretty honest, which isn’t a surprise, as I think the moral values of the Special Edition line are pretty strong on honesty too. Probably one of the reasons we like reading/writing them.
I agree with you, Marcie, that it’s better to come from us than someone else, and about Karma, too.
I tell my dh and kids everything. My parents and siblings, nothing they could turn into fifty years of teasing. When coming back from the dentist after a three hour procedure, I hit a police check. My mind was fuzzy and I couldn’t find the registration for the car which was in a folder in the glove compartment. I tried to have the officer look through the folder but he said no. He gave me a ticket but if I produced the registration in 24 hours at my nearest police station, the ticket would be nullified. DH took it in after work.