<p>Iglooo, I’ve been very cautious. D is about 6 months behind most of her friends getting their licenses so we’ve been dealing with this for a while. I’ve slowly loosened the reins - at first it was no riding with friends on the one highway between here and the next town, no riding at night, etc. Frankly, I base a lot of my decisions on whether I know the parents and if I trust their judgement about their kids’ driving ability. Still, the whole thing is very scary!</p>
<p>Our older daughter was almost a whole year behind her friends. I frankly didn’t trust most of her friends in driving her. After she got her license, she drove herself every where instead of riding with her friends.</p>
<p>D2 started school this Mon. They start earlier down here. It’s not easy for her, new language and new culture. She has 2-3 hours of homework every night already. Last night she was a bit down about not having that many friends yet. D1 is here visiting before she goes back to college. D1 said, “No, you have TWO friends, that’s a lot more than I had the first month studying abroad.” D2 smiled at that and said to D1, “I miss you. I wish you were living here.” </p>
<p>I envy you all in worrying about your kid’s driving. D2 would be doing just that if we were back home.</p>
<p>PRJ, No highway for a while for us. The highway here is murderous, heavy, fast, narrow, curvy, tight-not much shoulder. Delicate balance between letting them free and setting the boundary.</p>
<p>oldfort, You will be back home in no time. Enjoy the adventure while it lasts. Your D will get fluent in spanish.</p>
<p>I am living in simultaneous fear and anticipation of the actual driver’s license. I will look forward to not being the chauffeur, and I will be on pins and needles when she is gone with the car. I think I am more worried about her driving someone else than vice versa. It’s not that she is not driving in a satisfactory way, but I think the idea of all that freedom is scary to me as a parent.</p>
<p>hi oldfort, you are in Mexico City, right? Our neighbors hosted their Mexico City cousins for a month this summer so they could immerse themselves in English. I don’t know what kind of program your D’s in but I hope she has the same opportunity to experience their rich culture! I lived out the country for 2 years and learned their language faster while there than I would have studying it in class. The experience also helped to shape my perspective on many issues. I wish I had done for my kids what you are doing for your D!!</p>
<p>BTW, my D is learning to drive but she will not have free reign to go where she pleases. She will learn quickly, as my older S did, that spending $ on gas for frivolous trips is often painful on the pocketbook.</p>
<p>Good luck to all new drivers and their parents! Kids here only get their permit at 16 and have to wait till 17 to get their actual license. Drivers here are crazy, so I’m happy with the system. </p>
<p>S is now trying to cram all summer work into the next week and a half, while still interning 30 hours a week and seeing his girl friend. I’m trying not to be nervous about his ability to finish it all. Happy end to summer everyone! We still have a short vacation scheduled at the very beginning of Sept. so we still have something to look forward to!</p>
<p>My 2012 daughter has no interest in learning to drive. She’s currently at a boarding school on a university campus where none of the high school juniors and seniors are allowed to have cars, so I am relieved I don’t have to deal with that issue.</p>
<p>2012 son returned from 8 week summer math program on Friday, and decided he was ready to get his permit. With permit in hand, mother/son driving lessons have begun! He has driven in empty parking lots and some limited driving on active roads. I wish the passenger side break pedal worked!!!:D</p>
<p>Now that my D’12 has her permit and is taking driver’s training, she and my S (who has his license) now point out my driving errors! The tables are turned…</p>
<p>student4ever –</p>
<p>Which program did he go to? Was it Ross? What did he think of it?</p>
<p>Mine got back a week ago from 5 weeks at MathCamp (her second year there). She has a new love of graph theory.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone with student drivers!</p>
<p>um, about that student driving thing :(</p>
<p>D is close to ready for her driver’s test and I have (mostly) gotten over my anxiety in the passenger seat. but last night, with me sitting right beside her, she backed out of our driveway and straight into D1’s friend’s car that was parked directly across our narrow street. no one ever parks there and neither of us noticed the car as we got into ours. but that is no excuse and she learned a painful, expensive lesson. sigh.</p>
<p>PRJ - hugs to you!<br>
S did the same thing with my minivan last year - he backed into my precious red convertible. (The one I can’t drive often because I always more than one kid in tow.) It’s rarely out of the garage but DH was cleaning it out that morning.</p>
<p>PRJ - my sympathies to both you (because here error makes it harder for you not to worry about her driving!) and her (because it’s such a bummer!). That’s such a common mistake - it happens all the time. What I told my son when he did something similar is that i don’t care about the neighbor’s car (beyond getting it fixed of course), but if he missed a whole car, he sure wasn’t looking well enough to see a little kid on a bike (if one happened to be there). That seemed to make an impression on him. </p>
<p>I’ve got two drivers now, and I still worry. They don’t really speed too much, but they accelerate fast, and it drives me nuts.</p>
<p>PRJ - sorry to hear about it. I was in a rush years ago (D was to be picked up at preschool) and I too backed without looking - $900 price tag for a small dent. H did exactly what your D did about 5 yrs ago (bigger bill). He was also stressed and did not look. This is perhaps a good lesson (but expensive) about driving while calm, checking for the obvious etc. My FIL backed into my car (and he never paid for the damage! H excused him (humph - he didn’t fix it either) many years ago - that car was cursed: I hit the garage with it myself and finally someone hit me and it was totaled.</p>
<p>thanks for all your support! </p>
<p>lilmom, I’m not sure I would have reacted so calmly she had hit my little red convertible - well, if I had a little red convertible. 
</p>
<p>anothermom2, your car was definitely cursed. good riddance to it and I am glad you weren’t hurt.</p>
<p>
that is exactly what H said to her, and I think it made an impression. we also told her how common this is - I backed into our babysitter’s car once and my excuse was the same: “but no one ever parks there!”</p>
<p>PRJ - I watched the whole thing happen from my dining room window. I couldn’t yell loudly enough.</p>
<p>PRj - Sorry you and your daughter had to have the experience, but very glad that no one was actually hurt.</p>
<p>You all have reminded me to check myself before getting into a car and remind my son often (nagging?) about this particular scenario. </p>
<p>Here’s to a safe end of summer/fall for all of us and our young drivers!</p>
<p>Ditto.</p>
<p>Are there more accidents these days? I see one just about everyday. Mostly minor thanks goodness.</p>
<p>My S, hs class of 2012, started his junior year yesterday. Luckily(?) we live in one of those states that has outdated agricultural laws so he has been driving since he was 14, so I don’t worry so much anymore.</p>
<p>For his AP Language class he had to read 2 books over the summer (tests next week), plus pick a columnist and select 10 columns and write an essay on each one. Of course he was finishing up the essays the day before school started. He said some of his friends hadn’t even read the books yet, so I guess I shouldn’t complain!</p>
<p>D has not done anything this summer to get her permit, but that’s fine with me. She told me before she was a bit nervous about it and I see now reason to push her at this point. I think she will work on it this year and hopefully be driving by next summer.</p>
<p>D has not finished her summer reading for APUSH yet and I think today it is starting to hit her that school is almost here. She had a wonderful 2 days out of town at a big horseshow and was pleased about her performance against the best girls in the west, but now she realizes that school is less than 2 weeks away.</p>
<p>Summer has finally arrived here to SoCal this week as I was actually hot for the past two days for the first time this summer!</p>