It dawned on me that in all the writing and mulling and contemplating I do here on Families.com about parenting teenagers, I haven’t really even begun to touch on the subject of teens and transportation. Particularly teens, cars and driving! I’m not sure if it was an accidental oversight on my part or a subconscious desire to forget that driving and teenagers are such a big deal. Well, the fact is, teens and driving are a big deal!
My eldest daughter will be seventeen in a few weeks and she doesn’t have her driver’s license yet. She does have her learner’s permit, but she hasn’t been in a real “fired up” hurry to get her license. I think part of it is due to the fact that we live in a city and with public transportation, bike trails, etc. she and her friends can get around independently pretty well even without driving. I remember my own adolescence in a more rural town and it seemed EVERYONE got their driver’s licenses when they turned 16. My daughter is in pretty good company as many of her friends don’t have their licenses either. However, some of them do…
As my daughter continues to practice and learn to drive (and she’s also going to take the infamous “Driver’s Ed.” this summer), some of her friends have not only gotten their driver’s licenses, but they’ve passed the 6-month probation period we have here in our home state. The probation period says that new teenage drivers can’t have anyone in the car with them who’s NOT a relative for the first 6 months after getting their license. The idea being that teens need more experience and confidence in their driving before they can drive with their peers and friends in the car. I’m absolutely fine with this law, but now that some of my daughter’s friends have passed the test and the probation, she’s now riding around with teenage drivers!
I’m adjusting. I can’t help but have very vivid flashbacks of my own teenage driving days–including the very unsafe cars we drove, the unsafe antics, and the tales of accidents and mishaps I know from myself and all my old, now-boring friends. I also can’t help have a fleeting, but strong wish that I had raised my family Amish…
See Also: To All Parents With Teen Drivers and How’s My Teen’s Driving?