TOTALLY GEEKED!

Lawyerlady wrote:

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 Waiting until she is 18 would NOT make that much difference.  Especially if she had a lerner's permit the whole time and could be learning to drive even without a license.  Face it - you wanted your kids to drive for your own convenience.  That isn't required for everyone.

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I think kids, especially girls, should know how to drive as early as possible, preferably before they become a passenger in a date's car. 

There could be times when your (someone's) daughter will be the only one sober who could drive home.

I got a car and learned at 15, and got a driver's license on my 16th birthday. I had a job after school so yeah, it was a convenience thing for my parents, but there were also restriction on where I could go, when I could use it, etc.

huskerbb wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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huskerbb wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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Husker, ou have no idea how much time her sport takes up. Did yourkids get college scholarships to play sports? If not, you have no idea what it takes to play at that level. She dedicates an extraordinary amount of time to it so that she can be the best.

She gets up every day at 6 am. She goes to school by 7 am. She does not return home from school until 8:30 at night and THEN she starts her homework. She finishes her homework between 10:30 and midnight. So...not sure when she is going to take that drivers ed class.

Yes, sometimes it IS one or the other.

-- Edited by Mellow Momma on Thursday 11th of June 2015 03:34:45 PM

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 Oh don't pretend you are the only one to ever raise active teenagers.

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 You didn't answer the question. Did your boys get college scholarships to play division 1 sports?

Did they spend 13 hours at the school everyday?

Did they have a 3.68 GPA going into their senior year and take all honors or AP classes?

Active is one thing. What DD carries is on a whole other level that very very few people can relate to. I want to know what time your boys got home from school everyday.

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They usually got home after practice at about 6 p.m.  They usually had an hour or so of cattle chores once they got home depending on the time of year.  During some parts of the year it was less, during some parts of the year it was considerably more. 

 

No, my kids didn't play Division 1 sports--but I coached several who did, and they ALL had driver's licenses before they went to college.   

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 At 16 and before college are considerably different.

Lawyerlady wrote:

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huskerbb wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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huskerbb wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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Husker, ou have no idea how much time her sport takes up. Did yourkids get college scholarships to play sports? If not, you have no idea what it takes to play at that level. She dedicates an extraordinary amount of time to it so that she can be the best.

She gets up every day at 6 am. She goes to school by 7 am. She does not return home from school until 8:30 at night and THEN she starts her homework. She finishes her homework between 10:30 and midnight. So...not sure when she is going to take that drivers ed class.

Yes, sometimes it IS one or the other.

-- Edited by Mellow Momma on Thursday 11th of June 2015 03:34:45 PM

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 Oh don't pretend you are the only one to ever raise active teenagers.

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 You didn't answer the question. Did your boys get college scholarships to play division 1 sports?

Did they spend 13 hours at the school everyday?

Did they have a 3.68 GPA going into their senior year and take all honors or AP classes?

Active is one thing. What DD carries is on a whole other level that very very few people can relate to. I want to know what time your boys got home from school everyday.

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They usually got home after practice at about 6 p.m.  They usually had an hour or so of cattle chores once they got home depending on the time of year.  During some parts of the year it was less, during some parts of the year it was considerably more. 

 

No, my kids didn't play Division 1 sports--but I coached several who did, and they ALL had driver's licenses before they went to college.   

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 At 16 and before college are considerably different.

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They had them when they were 16.   

I think husker was driving at 10 months old...

flan

huskerbb wrote:

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flan327 wrote:

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Ohfour wrote:

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Yep. He didn't want to have to haul them around.

Honestly, I loved it. I drove DS to school 45 miles away from my house, drove 30 miles back to work, 30 miles to pick him up and 45 back home. A lot of one to one conversation happened on those drives. I treasure them...

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 And I found out with my boys that the car was the best place for any "difficult" conversations:

1. They can't get away.

2. It makes a difference that they could look out the window, rather than looking directly at me.

flan

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Me, too.  I had a TON of those trips--but those type of trips are NOT the 5 minutes it takes to drive to some school activity. 

We had long road trips back to my hometown when we didn't live here--and they often drove and I was the passenger. 

See how that can work?   

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 Of course either the parent or child can drive...

flan

huskerbb wrote:

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flan327 wrote:

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huskerbb wrote:

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flan327 wrote:

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Ohfour wrote:

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Yep. He didn't want to have to haul them around.

Honestly, I loved it. I drove DS to school 45 miles away from my house, drove 30 miles back to work, 30 miles to pick him up and 45 back home. A lot of one to one conversation happened on those drives. I treasure them...

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 And I found out with my boys that the car was the best place for any "difficult" conversations:

1. They can't get away.

2. It makes a difference that they could look out the window, rather than looking directly at me.

flan

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Me, too.  I had a TON of those trips--but those type of trips are NOT the 5 minutes it takes to drive to some school activity. 

We had long road trips back to my hometown when we didn't live here--and they often drove and I was the passenger. 

See how that can work?   

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 Of course either the parent or child can drive...

flan

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Not according to most on here.   

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 Driving at 16 is a PRIVILEGE.  It is not a right.  And it is not always necessary.  I realize you live in the stix where everybody drives at 4.  But the rest of the world has other priorities.

Oh, and if you can't put a priority on teaching your kid to drive--a skill that most will need later in life--then your parenting priorities are seriously screwed up.

It's not that hard. It's not nearly as time consuming as some have made it out to be on here. Yes, it can be expensive--which goes back to the original point of the article, if you can't swing it, you did have too many kids.

Actually it IS time consuming. You have to attend class twice a week for 8 weeks in addition to the in car driving with an instructor. And then there is the time you have to spend driving with your parents.

Sorry, my daughter doesn't have time for 2 additional classes a week let alone the rest of it. She does community service (a school requirement), and her sport, and is vice president of student government which meets twice a week. She is a proctor so she has dorm duty once a week. She is taking 3 AP classes a semester, has learned 2 foreign languages fluently and is working on her third, has a 3.68 GPA and sings in the women's a Capella chorus. Honestly, her teachers tell me every semester they don't know how she finds time to do all she does.

The driving school told us it's a time commitment of a minimum of 10 hours a week. She just doesn't have that to spare. It's great that your sons did. But she doesn't.

just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

She won't drive at college much either. Between sports and student teaching, she will be busy there as well.
I know she will have time to go places and do things. But athletes can't have jobs so that's not a concern.

She was not ever one to struggle with confidence so I am not concerned. And she has driven with me and her dad. She is actually really really good at it. It's just jumping through the hoops to get the paper that's going to be the problem.

Here the classes are almost $400. Then it's $60/hour for driving time and they have to have 40 hours of driving time. Or, you can opt to do parent driving where the parent takes the child driving for 40 hours. There is a check off list that the parents have to complete and sign. We paid our recently retired army neighbor a substantially less amount to drive with our son. She got extra income she needed and we didn't break the bank.

Mellow Momma wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

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 My DN has not gotten her next level license because she was failing school.  Therefore, she had to spend all her time fixing that before she could devote more time to another class to get her Level 2 license.  She'll be 17 in a few months and still doesn't have it. 

Lawyerlady wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

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 My DN has not gotten her next level license because she was failing school.  Therefore, she had to spend all her time fixing that before she could devote more time to another class to get her Level 2 license.  She'll be 17 in a few months and still doesn't have it. 

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Has her desire to drive been killed? 

just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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Teaching them and jumping through hoops to get a license are two different things.  

I was 18. The creepy English teacher that liked me was my drivers ed teacher. Would take me driving at night. Got pulled over by a statie one night. That statie knew the guy was up to no good and called my father. That didn't end well for the teacher.

Ohfour wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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Teaching them and jumping through hoops to get a license are two different things.  

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Not really.. 

Ohfour wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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Ohfour wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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Teaching them and jumping through hoops to get a license are two different things.  

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Not really.. 

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Sure it is.  I was driving long before I got my license.  They didn't have "permits" back then, so we all learned on the road unlicensed.  

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That's not the way it's acceptably done now days. Yes, when we were growing up we learned to drive early. Now days, kids and parents have to jump through hoops to get that license.

IMHO, the teaching and the jumping are learning experiences for all parties. 

just Czech wrote:

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Lawyerlady wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

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 My DN has not gotten her next level license because she was failing school.  Therefore, she had to spend all her time fixing that before she could devote more time to another class to get her Level 2 license.  She'll be 17 in a few months and still doesn't have it. 

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Has her desire to drive been killed? 

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 She can desire all she wants.  But, if she can't pass school, she doesn't have time for extra classes.

Lawyerlady wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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Lawyerlady wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

---

 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

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 My DN has not gotten her next level license because she was failing school.  Therefore, she had to spend all her time fixing that before she could devote more time to another class to get her Level 2 license.  She'll be 17 in a few months and still doesn't have it. 

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Has her desire to drive been killed? 

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 She can desire all she wants.  But, if she can't pass school, she doesn't have time for extra classes.

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How many hammers have been held over DN's head leading her to have no desire to succeed in anything?

I'm not saying you are responsible for the way your DN responds, I'm just asking a question. 

just Czech wrote:

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Lawyerlady wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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Lawyerlady wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

---

 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

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 My DN has not gotten her next level license because she was failing school.  Therefore, she had to spend all her time fixing that before she could devote more time to another class to get her Level 2 license.  She'll be 17 in a few months and still doesn't have it. 

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Has her desire to drive been killed? 

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 She can desire all she wants.  But, if she can't pass school, she doesn't have time for extra classes.

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How many hammers have been held over DN's head leading her to have no desire to succeed in anything?

I'm not saying you are responsible for the way your DN responds, I'm just asking a question. 

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 None.  Her guardian is my mother who still behaves like a grandma, not a parent. 

And the school passed her through 7th and 8th grade because her mother died.  And then they put her in a special program that she couldn't be bothered to show up for.  She has had concession after concession with no consequences at all. 

-- Edited by Lawyerlady on Friday 12th of June 2015 11:54:28 AM

just Czech wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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just Czech wrote:

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How are you going to empower your daughters if you don't teach them to drive?

I am flabbergasted by the whole concept of not having time to teach such an important life skill.

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 She will learn before she goes to college. But she honestly doesn't have time right now. And the summer classes fill up on the day registration opens. There isn't another driving school close by. We would have to drive an hour away to get to the next one.    She will learn, but right now, I just don't know when she would do it. We looked at the schedule of classes during the school year and she would have had to miss 65% of the classroom classes. You have to take all of the classes in 2 months in order to progress. She couldn't do it. She was out of town for 5 or 6 of the classes. 

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She is not going to have enough time to build up her confidence level. Consistent practice over a long period of time, is what teenagers need. Otherwise they make stupid mistakes to easily from lack of real experience.

I'm really sorry for her. Or for any kid who has to drive off to college with less then a years worth of driving experience. To me, it's frightening.

Sorry, MM. I'm not being snarky or mean to you or anyone else, but my mind is just blown away with fear for your DD now. 

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Yup.   

 

According to some on here it takes the same effort to move a mountain that it does to get a driver's license.  That just is not so.  I had two kids get their licenses.  They took driver's ed.  It's just not that difficult. 

Ohfour wrote:

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DD didn't want to drive. I didn't make her.

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So you don't think she'll ever need to drive to work?  Run errands?  Take her own kids to things?   

Ohfour wrote:

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huskerbb wrote:

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Ohfour wrote:

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DD didn't want to drive. I didn't make her.

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So you don't think she'll ever need to drive to work?  Run errands?  Take her own kids to things?   

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Oh, no.  I stopped driving her when she graduated.  I told her to either get a license or find a ride.  She got her license.   

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Ah.  Good plan.