My oldest, my difficult child still does not have her permit or license at age 19. Why? becuz I did not feel she would be safe out driving. She is not aggressive, but she panics, has a lot of phobias and fears, and can be impulsive. I do not care if the state said she could drive, I said "no" And since she turned 18 she has not had the money to go try.
My easy child does have her license. And he drives. IL has some very strict laws about teen drivers- I hear they are some of the toughest in the country. Then along comes mom, and I added even MORE rules.
Being "mom" I am allowed to do that. LOL. She had an extra hard time putting in all her required practice hours, becuz I am NEVER a passenger in ANYONES car, not EVER. Thankfully her mentor and her dad did that. I HAVE been out and about when she has not known, watching her......
She does not have her own car.....she has to pay her portion of the car insurance (and it is extremely high becuz her dads driving stinks, and our car insurance passed some of HIS reputation etc on to her insurance, I am not sure why) Oh yes, LOTS of rules, like I said my state is very rigid, and so am I. For the last 2 years our TV news has been doing this ongoing special on teen drivers, and so has our local newspaper, becuz our area has a VERY high rate of bad accidents/crashes involving teen drivers. IL also has made drivers ed required in HS in order to graduate (even for handicapped kids etc)...altho our court system has also recently adopted a policy that ANY type of legal problems, even those unrelated to driveing automatically can cause you to be unable to GET your license before age 18 or 21. Truancy, curfew, anything.
I keep reminding easy child that even if SHE is a decent driver, there are LOTS of people out there who are NOT such good drivers. I also keep reminding her driving is a privilege. We do not have busses here, nor taxicabs.....we are kind of rural.....and I am not always well enough to chauffer the kids where they want to go....BUT....I will still pull the keys for even slight infractions. I also always welcome a phone call if weather turns or she feels maybe she is tired or something, I would come get her where ever she might be. I also always remind all my kids to never ever get into a car with anyone who seems impaired in ANY way (whether it be suspected alcohol, drugs, sleepy, ill, whatever) or if the car seems to not be acting right....I will ALWAYS come get them, no punishment.
..just call me.
It really makes me nervous to have them out on the roads, so vulnerable-----yeesh. BUT I prefer my easy child to be doing the driving rather than being a passenger in any of her friends cars. IL also has severe limits on who can have passengers in their car, so it is not usually anything at this time, and I am glad. LOL. Some of her friends who passed their license tests YIKEs, scares me a lot!