Grouchy gramps derails airport run

Dear Amy: Recently my daughter-in-law asked my wife to drive her and her two little kids to the airport (100 miles away) using our car.

Mind you, the daughterin-law has a brand-new $50,000 SUV.

This would leave me without a car.

The daughter-in-law didn’t offer to let me use her car.

So I took off in our car the morning of the trip to go shopping and do some errands.

I told my wife to drive the daughter-in-law’s car.

Now the daughter-in-law and my wife are mad at me.

I feel she is selfish and taking advantage!

She says she didn’t want to drive her new SUV in city traffic.

Should I have to pay for wear and tear on my car so the daughter-in-law can keep her new expensive SUV without using it? — Rightful Owner

Dear Owner: What you did was really obnoxious.

When was the last time you took two young children by yourself on a plane? The morning of a trip like this is extremely stressful.

Your daughter-in-law and your wife had made an arrangement that you didn’t like, and so, rather than talk to them both about it and staking your (rightful) claim to your own family’s car, you simply took it, leaving them to scramble.

It is disingenuous for you to pretend not to understand.

I am assuming that your daughter-in-law might have been nervous about your wife driving her new, powerful, unfamiliar vehicle alone on the way back from the airport. It’s not just that designer SUVs are expensive, but a BMW and a Buick are distinctly different.

Regardless of your DIL’s reasoning, I do agree with you in a sense about the use of the cars.

I completely agree with them, however, about your behavior. Badly done.