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when do you let your 16 year olds drive others- We now have a law that they can only drive 1 passenger when they are 16 but I was curious how long you made them wait before they drove with another passenger-
Mine is about to be 16 next month and most parents make them wait about 6 weeks to a few months-- I am talking about around the area that we live in- no interstates-
as far as insurance etc-I pay their insurance as long as they keep good grades -they pay for most of their fuel-
We followed the law becasue it was MY CAR. That was for my daughter who started driving young. Passengers are VERY distracting. My son didn't get his license until he was 19 so the laws were a little different.
I got my permit at 15 during summer, tuned 16 in November. I didn't drive that winter though, and got my license the next summer while I was 16. I turned 17 during my senior year of high school and graduated in '03. I also worked my entire senior year. I took a co-op class and got a credit for doing well at my job. I paid for gas but my parents paid the insurance.
The only "accident" I've been in was being late for school and having someone speeding through the parking lot to leave, and they hit my tire on the drivers side rear.
As far as having people in their car... if it's the law then they shouldn't be doing it anyways. And I'd say a year without friends in the car is reasonable, and hopefully that's enough time for them to get the hang of driving that their friends won't be as big of a distraction. You could base it, also, on their driving skills. I think some people you can just tell that they aren't good enough drivers to handle certain situations.
We take each situation as it comes up. For the first 6 months we were very cautious. We let him go on a date when the girl lived close to the house and they were going out locally. We let him take his brother to football practice. We limited him to one passenger at a time and kept him pretty close to home for the first six months, except for taking his brothers to school (which is about 1.5 miles from the house).
Now he has had his license for about 10 months and we allow him more than one passenger under certain circumstances. We also allow him to travel a little further away. Tonight he is setting up for a wrestling tournament in Miami. Miami is not that far from here (30 miles) but driving there is a little crazy. Around here kids who are 16 have to be off the road by 11 PM.
We pay for his insurance and he uses one of our cars. As long as he gets good grades and is involved in school activities we will continue to pay for his gas and insurance in high school. Part of the deal we have with him is that he needs to help us with drop offs and pick ups when we need help. So far we have not had any problems. He takes his brothers to school, football practice, rehearsals, etc....He gets good grades. He is an honors student and has not gotten in any major accidents.
He did scrape the car on the side of the garage and we are making him pay for that out of the money he made this summer.
Edited to add: Restrictions for winter driving are not necessary here. We live in the one state in the US that does not have snow right now.
We have graduated licenses here at 16. For the first 6 months, no passengers except for family. After 6 months they can have 1 non-family passenger. Once they have held a license for one year they can have up to 3 non-family passengers. We pretty much followed those guidelines.
When my daughters got their licenses, there were no restrictions. You were 16, you passed your test, you could do anything anyone who'd had a license for 20 years could do. My oldest got her license in the spring, and mostly drove her sister around that summer, sometimes with a friend. The younger one got her license in July, and 6 weeks later was driving a couple of younger kids to high school gymnastics practice every day. She was a girl after my own heart though. One time, the other girls were rolling down the windows and throwing stuff out, so DD just locked the windows.
For me it's that old "Drive or be driven". If my 16 year old is out in a car with someone, I really prefer my kid to be the driver because I can then better control the situation by controlling the driver that is my kid. And it's my car that's being borrowed so they have to listen to my lecture each time and put up with me checking it for dents and mileage.
We also have the laws about one passenger and city and DPS curfews for 16 year olds. By letting them drive somewhere around age 16, they get some practice, rules and all before they can get their own car and think they can do anything.
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