Tales from the Mother of a Teenage Driver

Do you know how they say that most accidents occur within one mile of home? My family can't seem to get out of the driveway, let alone down the street a mile.

As with all tedious tasks involved with parenting a teenager, the subject of driving has now been the joy of motherhood for me twice now. Now the term joy doesn't exactly explain how teaching one's child to drive makes a parent feel but we'll use it anyway.

My youngest has been driving approximately a year and a half now and what he has put me through since being behind the wheel of a car is enough to fill pages and pages of journals with his antics and theatrics since becoming a licensed driver. I do not have the supplies to go into the antics and theatrics behind the wheel involving his father, his brother, and our driveway. Just trust me, they have all had their share of problems.

I will just share the most recent episode involving my youngest son Shawn. We share a drive with the neighbor. There are always two cars to each household most times. The neighbors have a large area where we both can turn around before we go out into the street. We are located on an ever so slight curve and backing out isn't always the wisest choice so we use that turnaround a lot.

On this most recent occasion, both the neighbors and we had company. Meaning one extra car in each drive with a total of six altogether. Our company, my son's friend was parked behind our car with Shawn's car clear to back out. Our neighbor's company, the Mom, had her car pulled in the turnaround. The boy's buddy went to leave at the same time the neighbor's Mom went to leave and from right here in our living room through the big plate glass window, this is what my husband sat in his recliner and narrated to me. I cannot complain that he sat in his recliner and narrated, as there was no time to run outside and direct traffic because it all happened so quickly. This is what I heard:

"Damian's leaving at the same time Ray's Mom is leaving."

"Damian's gonna hit Ray's Mom-Oh, Look Out, Ahh!!! He seen her."

To avoid hitting the neighbor's Mom, Damian now pulled in behind Shawn's car to allow the other car room to get out without a collision. In the meantime, Shawn is waiting to leave as well and is sitting in his car warming it up while the near miss behind him played out. Being the ever vigilant and cautious driver he swears he is, in true fashion, this is what I hear from narrating hubby next:

"Now, Shawn's gonna hit Damian's car."

LOUD, LOUD BUMP!!!

"$#&%, Shawn just hit Damian's car!"

And the warm and fuzzy feeling of motherhood and parenting all came back to me in just that moment. Along with the realization that we'll surely have to pay more insurance because we can't seem to even make it out of the driveway. What risk must we be on the roads? In honesty, no one was hurt and we can sit and chuckle and joke about it now but I shiver to sit and think of all the "other" little theatrics that go on beyond this driveway that I'm not aware of that involve my teenaged son and his driving abilities.