Take it slow. Many kids don’t want to drive. S22 simply refused. We worked with him, well I did. Eventually he got his learner’s permit. Days before college he got his license. Now as a sophomore he is driving and has a car on campus. Actually, he is on the ECOCar team. It took time. Driving was always scary to him. But he has several road trips under his belt now. Now D24, she loves driving and couldn’t wait to start and has one. So, it will work out. And to be fair, I hit the garage, too, the day after I got my license way back when. Considering my parents reaction, you handled it well.
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My younger sister did something extremely similar when we were kids–hit the gas instead of the brake and slammed the car into the back wall of the garage. It was a very solid masonry garage so the car took the main damage, but it definitely freaked us all out.
For like maybe 24 hours, and then it transitioned to much mocking.
So, here is to your future-funny story to tell!
Edit: Just a possible tip, but I think S24 really benefited from driving practice in a big local cemetery. It is closer to real road conditions than a parking lot, but obviously very low-speed. I think it built his confidence in terms of understanding the basics of getting going, stopping, picking the proper path and speed through turns, and so on, so was a good step before real real streets.
And you get to make jokes about how any pedestrians they hit won’t have far to go . . . .
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I’m glad everyone is okay! That sounds really stressful.
My S24 still doesn’t have his license (has had his permit for 1.5 years 
) and is really reluctant to drive. He knows he should practice, and he wants to be good at it, but he knows he isn’t yet and so is nervous about it. We basically bribe him to drive a few times a month. I’m going to push harder after all his applications are in, because he wants (and I want!) to get his license and be able to drive confidently by the time he graduates.
My S23 didn’t get his license until he was 18.5. And 3/4 of my nieces were 20! I think maybe kids don’t have the urgency to drive that people did when we were young. But also, I think traffic might be worse most places so maybe it is more intimidating. 
(ETA: My S23 banged up all 3 of our cars when he was leaning to drive. He backed into/along 2 of them with the other at different times. And he ran into a parking post pretty solidly once.)
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I hit the garage too! As an adult 
To be fair the driveway was a sheet of ice and I slid but still…things happen.
Hugs to you all!
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Very clearly these garages need to watch where they are going!
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D20 learned to drive during Covid. It was actually one of the highlights of the day - just sitting in the car and driving around town with relatively empty streets.
S24 has a much busier life so it has been difficult to schedule driving time. Aim is to get him a license this summer - and I might get him a few lessons so that he learns how to parallel park. I sure can’t do it!
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D24 totaled our car 1 month after getting her driver’s permit while she was out practicing with DH one day and was turning left at a busy intersection near our house. She had some pretty bad PTSD about it afterwards for a few months. Honestly, what we learned from that is she really wasn’t ready AND that my DH is a terrible teacher when it comes to teaching a teenager how to drive.
So we paid $1500 and signed her up for a local driving school that has this simulator set up and the student has several simulator sessions first BEFORE they go out on the road. And then there are a series of 2-hour on-the-road sessions with one of their instructors.
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Mistaking the gas for the brake is VERY common for kids learning to drive - I recommend going to a parking lot and practicing “stop!” “go!” I’m glad that no one was hurt! LOVE the idea of practicing in a cemetery and will use this for D30 - D24 is licensed.
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Progress on the college front! D24 submitted her app to BU this morning. (I’'m smiling because ordinarily I don’t disclose where she’s applying this specifically, but BU is one of those schools that is so well-known and coveted that it really makes no difference what you say about it online. I’m not going to “jinx” her by talking about it). Even though she’d love to go there, I actually think some of her other supplementals were much better, because more people take the time to find out specific things about the school and say them when it’s BU. Therefore, her app will probably look more similar to others. I’d rather have her a little closer to home anyway. 
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D24 was also rejected. It was a rough few days, but now she’s excited to see the rest of her results. Now if she could only finish the rest of her apps it would be nice. Hugs to you and your S24.
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In our state they are required to have 12 hours of on the road instruction with a driving school (two of those hours are highway) plus 40 hours of parent driving instruction. I wish the 12 hour requirement were more but it is also very expensive. The mandatory 30 hours of classroom plus 12 hours deriving is almost $1000! I don to know how low income families are able to do that unless I guess their kids just don’t get a license which isn’t fair.
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To update the garage saga, the contractor just left. He can fix the damage and hopefully even realign the rails of the garage doors so the garage door company does not have to come. Likely a couple thousand which is no dropping the bucket, but I was imaging having to reconstruct the entire front of garage. The area hit IS load bearing, but not enough that we risk collapse in the immediate future. He has time next Tuesday and Wednesday and thinks he can get it fixed in two days.
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We had a similar gas instead of brake experience while learning to drive. No one was hurt but the car was damaged. After the incident we ended up paying for supplemental lessons with a highly rated driving school. Not going into too much detail but there were sibling dynamics and different life challenges that came to the forefront when the shared family car wasn’t available for a time period and that was on top of the nervousness of the teen driver to get back behind the wheel and for me as a passenger. I had to make a cost vs value calculation and the private driving lessons were worth it.
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My D24 is finally driving with me. It took her a long time to be ready. Every time she got in the car she would ask me which pedal was the brake and how to use the turn signal. It was just so much to remember. Now she doesn’t ask and she has said that it is much easier without having to think of the 2,000 things in great detail as she knows which pedal is which and how to use the turn signal, etc.
We did quite a bit of driving in industrial parks on the weekends. Roads with stop signs, but very little traffic on the weekend.
I’m glad the garage isn’t too damaged and can be fixed relatively cheaply and quickly.
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So sorry for her. S24 is also afraid to drive but I really would like him to get his license before leaving for college - has had a permit a long time. At our current rate of practice, S26 might have his license first. (Also S26: can we visit colleges over president’s weekend? Um, I was just doing that like five minutes ago. Hoping to wait until fall.)
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Between the cocktails and this, are you me? We also made our kids learn to drive a manual. They were “thrilled” but now are actually thrilled.
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Hello fellow 2024 parents!
I have VERY much enjoyed reading this thread the past few months. I thought I would finally chime in with our process. My D24 has had a rough high school journey. We moved twice post Covid, so 3 high schools in 4 years to vastly different parts of the country. She has been a trooper but this first semester of senior year without real friends but piles of AP work and college applications has been so so hard.
Additionally, we landed in the NE and didn’t hardly know the college options. Spoiler: there are a TON.
She and I made a good list of state schools and chasing merit schools. Then DH chimes in the month before EA deadlines that actually, he would be fine paying for a few select reachy reaches beyond the previously agreed to budget. Sigh. Between the 2 of them there was overlap of 2 schools that daughter would love to go to and dad would like to pay for.
I would say she worked harder than perhaps she ever has (she is a high stats, school comes easy kind of kid). I really liked her Ivy EA and thought it represented her well. We all knew it was long shot. Everyone says it’s a long shot. We said over and over that she would land at the right place.
But the rejection from the Ivy was crushing.
And she has lost all motivation to complete the application for the other reach RD (non Ivy).
She made a compelling argument that she doesn’t have the motivation because the more she researched the school the less she liked it. Even the alumni interview decreased her enthusiasm lol.
I worry it is just not wanting to face another rejection.
Thankfully, she HAD completed the RD applications to her (now) top 2 schools and did EA to 6 public state schools (cheers to UVM for giving her an acceptance before the holidays!!)
She added 3 more schools yesterday that were easy applications.
Now there is nothing to do but wait.
I wish for nothing but for D24 to feel excited and wanted by a good match. Best wishes to all of you in these last weeks of application madness. Crossing my fingers for lots of confetti when our kiddos open the portals on decision day!
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spot on. That’s how i started off with D24 in a large parking lot. It helped her gain confidence and understand the basics of automobile but she is not enthusiastic about driving on roads yet and hasn’t been behind the wheel in months. I need to get her back to basics again and get her license before summer.
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On driving, in addition to cemeteries, college campuses at this time of year are great for practice, too! I had my kid practice drive thrus by circling an out of the way bank drive up window on Sundays, I’m sure we are on a list somewhere from appearing on their security footage….
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My interesting car experience last week was finding three bears in my car (a mama bear and two adolescents). I stupidly left a door unlocked and our local bears know how to open car doors (and “bear-proof” garbage containers). There was no real damage other than a single bite mark on my steering wheel. The same thing happened to D24’s ancient hand-me-down Subaru, which has the torn upholstery and claw marks to show for it. In our town, the humans are well behaved but ursine crime is an issue.
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