to want out of this car share?

[Libertymae]

Such a small, ridiculous issue to post about but I don't know how to get out of this situation!

For the past year, I have car shared with another family to take my youngest DS and their son to school (about 40 mins away from our home with traffic). It always worked brilliantly and was very easy.

A third family recently moved into our area and asked if they could share too. We said yes. But they have been difficult from the start - dictating which lifts they can and can't do and often letting us down at short notice. A couple of times they have asked to drop their son at my house and then been 20mins or more late, which means we're all late. This morning I turned up to pick up their son, only to be told he was still in bed so they'd take him later - no hint of an apology despite the fact it is out of my way to pick him up.

I obviously need to put a stop to the situation, but will still see them at school functions and the boys are in the same class so don't want to make it awkward for them. How can I end it gracefully?

next time you fuck us about/ turn up late/ whatever and dont give us notice, it will be the last time

Don't worry about graceful, just end it!

Sorry but the car share idea just isn't working for us anymore. .

As it's almost the end of term, I would tell them that you aren't able to drive out of your way any longer after the holidays due to unspecified changes in your routine. Then you can continue your arrangement with the original family without it looking odd. How do the originals feel about it all?

Could you have a chat with the original family and see if they are also annoyed by this third family?

I would sack off this family and go back to your original arrangement.

Why did you wait 20 minutes for him? After 5 I would have been gone and the arrangement would have been over.

'We won't be doing the car share with you anymore.' If asked why then just state the facts. Don't see how you can control whether they want to act awkward afterwards.

Ha ha, Araiwa!!

Do the other (second) family feel the same?

I'd just phase them out. Oh I can't do drop off this week as car is full of stuff for the tip/charity shop/crap. I've got to be in early that week, we might be running late this week due to something else, yada yada... until they get the message! But I'm a wimp!

Just say that it's too hard juggling the needs/schedules of three families, and that you're going to go back to just two families...... this is of course as long as the original family are just as annoyed as you and agree to the old arrangement.

Could you pretend that you are stopping the entire thing and then just go back, secretly, to your previous arrangement with the other family that worked so well. Would they find out? Give some excuse like change in job starting times or some such.

Don't lie or pretend about anything to get out of this.
A simple "sorry unfortunately this situation doesn't work for us anymore" will suffice.

Why concern yourself with what they'll think, when they clearly don't give a shit about inconveniencing you?

Araiwa haha! brilliant, exactly what I wish I was brave enough to say.
Starlighter - more my style too!

Everyone else, thank you, yep, you're right, I'm going to go with sorry, it doesn't work for us anymore!

Thanks for your time, all!