Teenage Drivers

Cory had a little incident involving a mailbox and the passenger-side mirror of our van. Jeffrey went and got it fixed Thursday, and that's when Beth found out. Yeah, we hadn't told her because we knew she'd give her brother a hard time. We were right. She said, "At least I waited until I got my license and was driving by myself before I hit a mailbox." Like that makes it better. She hit a patch of ice last winter, spun out, and hit someone's mailbox. At least she didn't cause any major damage to the car.

Looking back I realize that once she got her license, we stopped having her drive whenever we went places together. She drove on her own, but she didn't drive with us. Before she got her license we had her drive everywhere so she would get practice and experience. After she got her license, we should have continued that. Just because she put in the time and passed the test didn't mean she was ready to be turned loose all the time. Having her drive with us at least once in a while would have been a good way to keep an eye on her driving and hopefully stop her from developing bad habits. I'm not saying she has developed bad habits, because I think she's a very good driver, but it couldn't have hurt anything. One of those gps fleet tracking units would have been nice to keep track of where she went and how she was driving, too.

I guess it's not too late... I'll have to start letting her drive, and I'll definitely continue to let Cory drive once he gets his license. Being chauffeured around isn't a bad thing, right?