I Used Jumper Cables and I Feel Empowered

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It amazes me that even though I live in a cold state like Minnesota, I didn’t know how to jump my own car. Up until this point I always relied on a man (really any man nearby) to do this job for me. And I always believed that these men were so awesome for helping me out.

But I’ve been let in on a little secret that I’d like to share with the rest of you ladies who also relied on men for this task. Jumping a vehicle is not hard. Really.

So how did I learn? By force.

Two days ago I packed my boys into the van and was on my way to a much needed play date and a chance to hang out with my friend Sarah. But just as I turned the key over I realized immediately that the battery was dead. Ugh. Again?

This had happened several times over the course of the winter. We knew something was draining the battery but didn’t know what and it hadn’t happened for a couple of months.

I did what I always had done, I called my husband Joe, hoping he could come home from work and jump it. (It only takes him about 10 minutes to get home. He is salaried and his job is a bit flexible.)

He had a meeting in 15 minutes and couldn’t come home. I was deflated for a moment but then Joe offered to walk me through charging it with our battery charger. Within 5 minutes I had our van hooked up and charging. After 15 minutes, I unhooked the charger and turned it over. Vroom!

Worked like a charm! I felt fabulous and we had a great time at our play date.

That is, until I discovered our van again wouldn’t start today as we were leaving a playground. Again, I called my husband but I realized he was at lunch with some friends and everyone would have had to leave lunch for him to come to my rescue. That was silly. There was another mother there with kids so my husband just reminded me to put the jumper cables with black on black and red on red.

And so I did it. I did it and looked like I knew what I was doing. The other mother didn’t have a clue.

“Wow, I had no idea how to do that. You are like a super mom. That was amazing. I think I could actually do that now if I needed to.”

My friend Sarah had mentioned that she has jumper cables but wouldn’t know how to use them.

And that is when it hit me. Somewhere along the way this process became scary to us. We knew it had to be done right and that kept us from ever really wanting to learn how. To take on that responsibility. Why? Because it was easier to simply depend on someone else to do it.

Jump starting a vehicle is easy.  I empower you to learn how and spread the word to other woman that they can do this too!

So now I’m curious, would you be able to give your car a jump start if it needed it? How did you learn how or what is stopping you from learning?