<p>We are picking up the car today for our rising Senior. She’s had her permit/license for about a year, driving my car, and is pretty responsible. I want to have some written (ok maybe just verbal) ground rules in place before we let her have the keys. Some I’m thinking of are: (1) no more than 1 other teen in the car unless she has our permission in advance; (2) curfew of 11, unless our permission; (3) she has to pay for gas; (4) no texting --she wouldn’t, I don’t think… (4) can’t drive into City or more than 30 miles without our permission…</p>
<p>I’m trying not to be too controlling, but it’s baby steps for me and for her!</p>
<p>Please share any other rules you’ve set that I haven’t thought of.</p>
<p>When our kids were in high school…we asked that they TELL us if they were carrying passengers at all times. In addition, we asked that they tell us where they were driving.</p>
<p>My son had to keep his grades up. He also was not allowed to have his cell turned on while he was driving. Had to take care of oil changes etc. He’s done great! He’s been licensed for 3 years with no tickets or accidents!</p>
<p>You have covered most of our rules. We also stipulate no phone calls while driving (pull over);in addition to gas, make sure car is washed and kept clean inside; if he gets a speeding ticket, driving privileges will be taken away for an indefinite period.</p>
<p>I think that prohibiting more than one other friend in the car is one of the most important rules. I see too many instances of groups of kids speeding around in cars looking like a party is going on inside - very distracting to a young driver and thus incredibly dangerous.</p>
<p>Your daughter sounds responsible, as is our son, so I am sure she will be fine. It never hurts to have rules in place though. :)</p>
<p>For starters, our kids understand that the cars are our cars and we allow them to use them</p>
<p>We set the following rules:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>He may drive one person without asking us. If he asks for permission to drive one additonal person we may grant it. It depends on who the person is and where they are going.</p></li>
<li><p>Grades must remain acceptable. For us that means no Cs.</p></li>
<li><p>Since you drive our car you must help us with driving every now and then. That mean you have to give your brother a ride, when necessary.</p></li>
<li><p>If we hear/see you texting and driving your driving privileges will be immediately suspended.</p></li>
<li><p>You have to ask us if you want to go anywhere outside of our immediate area (say within 10 miles). We may grant permission for you to go further but we need to know if you are taking the car far away.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We pay for gas. He has to keep the car clean. FL has graduated curfews of 11PM for 16 year olds and 1AM for 17 year olds. We are on our 2nd teen driver. One is 19, the other is 17 and we have not had any problems with them. They both started driving at 16 and have clean driving records.</p>
<p>Our state imposes the “one other teen” rule as law as well as an 11:00 curfew on drivers between the ages of 16 and 18. So those don’t even have to be our rules!</p>
<p>Do not touch the phone while you are driving.
Have to know if anyone is riding with you and who that is.
Have to know where you are going. If you leave that place to go to another, have to text us (before driving, obviously!) as to where you are moving to so we know where he is.</p>
<p>We didn’t put any rules in writing…but if the kid violated a rule, we took the car keys away. It was our car, after all. We did it once with DS who neglected to tell us he was driving a friend around town, and we never had an issue again.</p>
<p>We have four teen girls. Two oldest are both rising seniors (“step-twins”). My D is one of those rising number of kids that does not like to drive and is not that excited about getting her license. Hence, she doesn’t have it yet. (Failed road test once.) SD loves to drive. We bought a used car for the two to share and SD promptly totaled it after a few months. Luckily, no one injured but insurance rates, ugh. We suffered through her not having a car for a few weeks then quickly realized how great it was when she had one, so we bought another (cheaper) car. </p>
<p>I second the rule that you have to drive sibs to school, practices, etc., and run to the grocery store for something, when we ask. Also, no one has mentioned controlled substances. They shouldn’t be doing it at that age anyway, but it should be on the list: NO drinking/smoking and driving! If you find yourself in that situation, leave your car where it is and take a cab home. Another rule for the non-driving teen: Don’t get in a car with anyone who has been drinking/smoking. (We always leave cash under the front mat in case our kids need to take a cab home, and no, I’m not going to give out my address, so don’t get any ideas.)</p>
<p>I totally second the drinking/driving thing.
Other ideas
Make sure you have cell phone so if something happens you can call.
Keep a pen and pad in the car. If you have an accident, even if it’s clearly your fault, GET THE OTHER DRIVER’s INFORMATION.
Put a safety kit in the car, just in case.</p>
<p>There are a number of good teen driver agreement templates out there. We printed this one out to discuss with our S. Your insurance company may have some resources too.</p>
<p>Before posting here, I did a quick google search, but didn’t come across the Allstate form. I love the official-ness off it, and also the stats it provides. I’ll definitely print it out.</p>
<p>When my kids got their licenses and were driving my car, and on my insurance, we had a few written rules. One was that if there was any accident that caused damage to the car, they’d pay for it. And if the insurance rates went up, or there were any other costs, they’d cover that too. S1 had no issues. S2 was in a fender bender. Luckily the insurance didn’t go up, but he did pay for the insurance deductible, and for his lawyer to reduce the charges, and for the fine. It was a hard lesson for him, and also hard for me to see him use money he’d worked hard for. But he’s been a very good driver in the years since!</p>
<p>Another rule was as very new drivers, they were not to listen to the radio or any music, etc. After a few months, that was lifted, but the volume had to be reasonable - ie, not louder than they’d put it on with me in the car. And NO headphones/earbuds EVER when behind the wheel.</p>
<p>We also printed out the contract plus we made sure that the Title was in only our names. </p>
<p>We made a copy of the signed agreement and put it in the glove compartment. It saved her a couple of times because girls at her college tried to “influence” my DD to drive after curfew (3 am) and to go to questionable locations. </p>
<p>She told them, “It’s not my car and I have a contract; it’s in the glove compartment.”
When she was told, “well they won’t know”, she would say, “but I will”. DD didn’t want to risk losing her car to younger sister!</p>
<p>We used the Allstate Contract and modified it a bit. One thing we included was a time they had to leave the house for school rule… if you don’t leave by _____, you don’t drive that day. It would punish us, if we had to drive them, but it punished them more. This way you minimize the risk of speeding to school.</p>
<p>A couple of other thoughts. Everyone in the car must be wearing a seat belt before it moves. The no alcohol/controlled substances should also specify anyone in the car, not just the driver. You may also want to specify no eating/drinking while driving. This is almost as distracting as other activities. </p>
<p>I wanted my kids to have the phone on in the car so they knew when I called. They were not to answer it, but knowing how kids are about turning things on an off, I was certain they’d forget to turn it back on.</p>
<p>If you get in an accident, pull out your phone and take pictures of people, cars involved and picture of the other driver’s information. Easier than trying to write when you are shaky…</p>
<p>How would you as parents handle potential scheduling conflicts out of the control of the kid driving…such as working a part-time job shift afterschool/weekends or the afternoon/night before major final exams?</p>
<p>Am asking as while I never had a car in HS/college, a similar “chores as needed” conflict did come up while I was 17 during the winter break of my freshman year in college when my parents had the bright idea of “volunteering me” to tutor a family friends’ kid while forgetting I was working late that night for an old employer. </p>
<p>To add insult to injury, the family friends and their kid waited till the night before the SAT test session to come and ask for tutoring which made me less sympathetic as it shows they weren’t taking the test very seriously and trying to take my limited time for granted.</p>
<p>We used an Allstate type contract, too, as it covered several things we would probably not have thought of. It was nice for S to see that the parameters were set by knowledgeable professionals and didn’t mean that we didn’t <trust> S.</trust></p>
<p>One item we added: he was never to allow anyone else to drive his (our) car.</p>