It is still weird, even 6 months later, to see Kevin in my car driving off to do his thing.
The good news is that there haven’t been any real incidents with Kevin driving as of now. He’s mostly confined to the CR-V; only drives the van on occasion. Michigan has two rules for 16-year old drivers that have caused some heartache:
1) You can only have one other person in the car, unless they are family. For the most part, Kevin doesn’t get to drive his brothers….Suzanne and I prefer to do that. But there have been one or two occasions where Kevin has gone out to study with two others and ended up with both in the car as they go from one place to another…..he’s breaking the rule, but, breaking the rule was the only way to feasibly do what they wanted to do. Suzanne and I have grown to reluctantly accept this with prior notification.
2) You can’t drive after 10 pm. This rule has been an issue. Kevin’s not the most social of kids, and certainly isn’t out late all the time. BUT, when Lisa was here, he’s out with a group of juniors and seniors and leaving at 10 (with Lisa) wasn’t really an option…..”social suicide” was Kevin’s word for it. We’ve reluctantly gone along with this as well; the biggest concern is that Kevin doesn’t seem to fully appreciate the ‘gravity’ of the situation. A little more from Kevin “Yes, Dad, I know about the stupid rule, and I understand the consequences and promise to behave” would go a long way here…but that hasn’t been happening as much as it could be.
I have had to laugh, come back into the car and found the radio on, of all things, the 80’s on 8 on Sirius!
