Definately off topic..

[Bonibelle]

Oh man!  I definately need a Blue Moon (maybe a case) and a good long soak...
My 16 year old son is on his first date. He has his Dad's car and is taking out a girl he met on a visit to West Chester University last week. OK all you techies..I need GPS tracking device in the car...I need to find out everything about this girls family, her parents what they do, who they know...where they work..Where they (hopefully) go to church. I can't even imagine how I would feel tonight if I had a daughter on a first date...

Term and all of you with young kids..enjoy them while they are youngins..they grow up so fast.  ..I spent the night hanging up old family pictures of us when the kids were babies...

I am not doing very well with this at all... :-/

[Spatech_tuo]

Oh man!  I definately need a Blue Moon (maybe a case) and a good long soak...
My 16 year old son is on his first date. He has his Dad's car and is taking out a girl he met on a visit to West Chester University last week. OK all you techies..I need GPS tracking device in the car...I need to find out everything about this girls family, her parents what they do, who they know...where they work..Where they (hopefully) go to church. I can't even imagine how I would feel tonight if I had a daughter on a first date...

Term and all of you with young kids..enjoy them while they are youngins..they grow up so fast.  ..I spent the night hanging up old family pictures of us when the kids were babies...

I am not doing very well with this at all... :-/

LOL, just call her parents. They're probably biting their nails wondering about your son and his family as well!  

[Vinny]

Boni,

First dates especially at 16 are probably last dates. My 16 YO was "dating" girls without having a car. Dating is quoted because they either hang out at school or hang out at the girls house.

If you really want to track him ... activate his phone's GPS and get the chaperone feature for your phone! - we all know kids don't leave cell phones behind!

But if dating doesn't stop at one - make sure you explain to the girl's parents that a house is more important than a silly over priced wedding AND you expect to have some holidays at your house. Being parents of boys we need to lay the ground rules! If the girl's parents don't want to listen - do everything in your power to break them up!!  

Of course this is coming from a man who's wife won't let him handle ANY situations ... I am sometimes "coached" BEFORE situations arise!!! LOL!

[IlliniFan]

My husband made a check list for our daughters dates.  And grilled them prior to leaving the house.  Things such as.
1. Have you or do you now have any sexually transmitted disease?
2. What are your plans after high school?
3.  How would you plan to support my daughter?
etc. etc.  Then he would try to be polishing gun when date came to pick her up.  
This seemed to discourage second dates.  

[Cyn]

Oh, Boni, you have my sympathy!!  I made sure I had coached my son about how to treat girls...that helped me to feel better about the whole thing.  I also added 'THE' talk and had that one a few more times during those high school years of dating.  Keep in mind that you can't control this area...he will date and fall in love without your approval   so knowing all about his girlfriends will just make you worry more...and for nothing most of the time!!  I found if I didn't get overly worried, what I could have been overly worried about never came to pass.  Save your worrying for the BIG issues, LOL...  My son is now engaged to a wonderful girl!!  Good Luck!!

[Bonibelle]

Well, I survived the first date, but they could write a great sitcom episode based on how we all greeted my son when he returned. Poor kid...I was very relieved that the girls father met my son in the driveway and had a talk with him before letting his daughter get into the car. We still don't know her last name...something Italian...

I think I am more worried about my 16 year old (with only 4 months of driving with a license) driving someone else in the car. Between all the deer and the holiday shoppers, I had myself in a tizzy!!

And Cyn, you are so right...the years I have lost off my life worrying about the stuff that never happened at all..Why do I do that? Congrats on your future DIL...OOOOhh I can't even think about that!!

[Cyn]

I think I am more worried about my 16 year old (with only 4 months of driving with a license) driving someone else in the car. Between all the deer and the holiday shoppers, I had myself in a tizzy!!

Now the driving IS something to worry about!   :-/

[Spatech_tuo]

Now the driving IS something to worry about!   :-/

My son just got his permit 2 weeks ago and I've been taking him out. Mom got the courage to go out with him once alone last week and when they returned I think both regretted that one. She's WAY too nervous for that and he obviously senses it. I have no problem taking him and let him drive whenever I can and he seems to take to coaching well though I try to somewhat limit the input while he's driving so as not to distract him or overload him. The things he needed work on after the first couple times out are already much better, thank God.

[Vinny]

My oldest is going for his license next week. He went through Drivers Ed and has been driving around for about a year with his permit. We once went out as a family when he first went through DE and my wife and I were in the car ... that poor kid; I gave him one set of instructions and my wife gave him another. Finally I just shut up and she asked why I wasn't instructing - I explained that we both can't instruct so I will let her.

I took him out today to parallel park and he is doing great. My wife is worried about him driving but we all have gone through it and he is a good kid.

As far as dating - I guess once the car is here I'll be experiencing it as well! Hopefully he can pass the father test, not having girls is SO much easier IMO!!! I've also warned him about NOT having a girls father having to come to our house.

[96SC]

.I was very relieved that the girls father met my son in the driveway and had a talk with him We still don't know her last name...something Italian...

Was the last name Corleone?  Did all the dad's friends call him 'Don'?
Does your family raise horses?  

Just curious  

We've gotten through two sons and driving.  For the sake of this thread I'll leave out the 'exciting' episodes of males driving.   (Here's a clue:  when it rains...ground them)

[Cyn]

Sometimes having a boy and a girl is helpful.  You remind the boy that he should treat the girls like he would want his sister treated!!  

[AstaLaVista]

My State has very strict driving laws for teen/new drivers.  The first six months they have their license they can't have anyone in the car that is not a direct relative.. (mom, dad, brother, sister ) unless the other passenger is over 21.  My daughter will be starting drivers ed most likely in the spring..... I am already loosing sleep over it!!!

[96SC]

Those of you who have kids who are beginning or taking drivers ed should be thankful they are.  When I was in school, in another state, drivers ed was required for all sophomores.  Here in my current state drivers ed is an elective and many many kids don't take it.  Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Fester, Auntie Em, whoever teaches kids how to drive.  We MADE our kids take it in school.  The other option is to pay hundreds of dollars for a driving school.

I would take my kids out into the country and drive on old one lane dirt roads just to teach them how to stay on the road, went to the school parking lot on weekends to master pulling into parking spaces, backing up, etc.  They have a lot of room to 'mess up' without causing damage in an empty parking lot.  I even used the school parking lot to teach them how to back up a boat trailer..definately teach this in wide open spaces.

[Bonibelle]

My son took optional Driver's Ed through school ($250.00). I insisted on it and our insurance is reduced because of it. Another plus for insurance is a 3.0 average on a report card. I guess it shows responsibility, (I just don't buy that, but statistics say it makes a difference) Additionally, my 16 year old has been driving farm machinery and trucks on a farm since he was 14. But none of this can prepare a kid for all of the crazies that they will face on the road. They have grown up multi-tasking as a part of every day life.  I think they are more inclined to be distracted because they are not used to concentrating on just ONE thing.

When I see these kids (mostly young girls) yacking on the cell phone while driving, I get so angry. They are just inviting accidents.

[Vinny]

...
I would take my kids out into the country and drive on old one lane dirt roads just to teach them how to stay on the road, went to the school parking lot on weekends to master pulling into parking spaces, backing up, etc.  They have a lot of room to 'mess up' without causing damage in an empty parking lot.  I even used the school parking lot to teach them how to back up a boat trailer..definately teach this in wide open spaces.

Yesterday when I took my son to the HS parking lot to practice parallel parking we went to where ther was a curb and nobody was around. We put out 2 garbage pails, one being yellow, to give hime the space he is supposed to park in. Some ditz pulls up in a brand new car - on the cell phone and parks in a space close to where we were, apparently the basketball team was having tryouts and she needed to park as close to the school as possible. I told him to continue. Then another person pulled up and gave him even less room. I wanted to throw the garbage cans at the cars!!! I don't understand why these 2 adults couldn't think sensibly. Boni is right with the crazies out there! If I saw a kid trying to learn something then I would stay clear of him/her. Once my kid came out then I would drive up CAREFULLY to pick my kid up.

I took Drivers Ed and grew up in NYC. I learned how to drive on suburban streets, how to parallel park in real life conditions and eventually how to point and shoot drive (for rush hour or Manhattan). There was no distractions other than the radio. Today there are too many distractions. I had to tell my son - NO cell phone and texting, NO IPODs in the ear. He said he knew but I wasn't leaving it up to chance. Luckily we don't have high end cars with in dash GPS/DVD players ... I can see that being another big distraction even for older people.