The Mommies' Diaries…Parenting, One Blog at a Time.

Driving a car is serious business. After all, there are a lot of crazy drivers out there!

That’s why when my 14 year old asked if she could start driving…I said yes.

I know what you’re thinking.  But, let me defend my position. My thought process was this. If I spread out the drivers training over a period of a couple years, then she’ll be plenty ready and comfortable behind the wheel when it’s time for her to drive herself. She will become more independent.

First, starting the car was enough. Then shifting the automatic gear for me made her happy. Then, she wanted to back the car out of the driveway. And put it back in the driveway.

After I was convinced she knew how all the controls in the car worked, it was time to get out. So we practiced parking on weekends up at the college parking lot. This involved endless circles, stopping and going, parking and reversing.

I realized this was actually a great way for her to get very familiar and get over the fear of driving.  We worked on making smooth turns and complete stops.  We worked on gradual acceleration and controlling the car if we have to slam on the brakes in the rain.

But be forewarned! At first, the requests to drive will be here and there. Then they become increasingly more frequent. We graduated to driving around the campus and then into the residential neighborhoods behind the college on Saturday mornings.

Something strange began to happen. I began to see things I had never seen before. The neighborhood I lived in! There were shopping centers and restaurants I never knew existed. Since when were there so many water towers in the San Mateo hills? And when did that skate park get put in?!

It was terrible! We had to start having breakfast out, buy fresh vegetables and bread at the farmers markets, and make frequent stops at our favorite specialty drink shops (aka Peets).

Mind you, these were short hops from the college parking lot and after much practice on campus. Not only do you want to make sure your teen is safe, but you want to be sure nobody else gets hurt as well.

My little girl is growing up. At 15 1/2, she passed her written drivers test with a perfect score. While taking an official drivers training course as required by law, her instructor repeatedly told me how well she was driving and that she was going to do just fine. At 16, she passed her drivers test with only one point marked off – because she hit a pothole and didn’t slow down enough. Really?

No deaths. No accidents. No driving errors.

That’s okay. To me, that’s a perfect score!

When you were younger (please note I did not say young) and somebody asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, I’m sure you were all like me.  You jumped up and down and said “A taxi driver!”

Yeah, right.

It’s something parents never talk about.  I think the secret lies in the Book of Secrets only the President of the U.S. has access to.

When our children are small and you’re like our new mommie or our preschool mommie, we take them with us everywhere for various reasons.  Because we want to.  Because we have to.  Because we’re showing them off.

One day, we decide to take a chance and expand our horizons and put them in a fun-petitive sport during the summer.  It lasts several weeks and we drive them to and from the sport.

If we’re lucky, they find something they’re really good at like dancing or karate or baseball and it’s awesome. Your child is growing up before your eyes doing things you never imagined you would see them doing!

And somewhere down the line when they blow out 13 candles, or so, something strange happens.  This time portal opens up, swallows you, and 4 or 5 years flies by and you realize you have become a taxi driver!

Oh yes.  It’s true.  The amount of time you spend driving your children around increases exponentially with the type of activities they participate in as they get into their teens.  They’ll want to participate in sports that last 463 days out of the year, go to dances that last 4 hours but take 5 weeks to prepare for, complete school projects that Davinci had an easier time constructing, and take countless trips to the malls with their friends.

As a single father, I’ve become a Total Teen Dad and I’ve never complained.  Why would I?  In a strange way, this is a good thing.  You feel needed.  You get to spend more time with them, see them get excited about the new things, and experience the pitfalls that come with some new things.  And after several years of driving them around the world many times, you’ll actually be excited for them when they get their drivers license.  I think it’s Mother Nature’s way of preparing us for their independence.

Yes.  I thought I wanted to direct films when I got older and option a screenplay or two.  Apparently, I was wrong.  I wanted to be a taxi driver.