My Teen Is Driving
As of Tuesday night my 16-year-old is officially a licensed driver. He completed driver’s ed, got his certificate of completion and headed to the Department of Transportation for the real thing. My husband had to give consent. Then they took our son’s picture and gave him a license to operate a motor vehicle. And now I’m somewhere between scared to death and being proud of him.
In our state you get an intermediate license when you are only 16. The intermediate license has a few restrictions. He cannot drive between the hours of 12:30am and 5am. He needs to complete 10 more hours of supervised driving with a parent or family member over the age of 21 and at least 2 of those hours need to be after sunset and before sunrise. And he must have his intermediate license for at least 12 months before he can get an unrestricted full license.
That’s all fine and dandy, but what do parents get? They should at least hand out aspirin for the headaches we get worrying about our driving teens. Life seemed so much easier when they were toddlers and the only thing they drove were those plastic walkers.
We are getting ready for a family vacation. On our way to Thanksgiving dinner yesterday afternoon we were joking with the 16-year-old about how he was going to drive us all the way to Florida. He said, “Oh cool. This is where Grand Theft Auto comes in handy.” A look of fear crossed my face as he tried to explain. “I mean, in the game you have to drive your car and you have to watch the map in the lower right hand corner. It’s training for driving and keeping an eye on the GPS.”
Needless to say, I think my husband and I will be doing the driving.
Are there any restrictions there about driving passengers for him?
Not really. The number of passengers is limited to the number of seat belts in the car, just like any non-restricted driver. We are setting our own limits though. At least for the first several months.
Oooh. I feel your pain. My daughter is counting the days to her temps. I’m not sure if I am more scared about her being a new driver or riding with new drivers, especially after hearing comments like your son’s from her friends!
The law only gives the minimum requirements – you are right to set additional limits.
I am on my third teen driver. You always worry when they are out there and hope they make the right choices.
Once thin we instituted was making them responsible for their part of car insurance, gas and any tickets they may receive. This hopefully helps them think twice about being stupid…So far so good.
The intermediate license sounds like a good idea, with there being certain restrictions on it. I wonder how many states have adopted something similar to this?