Parenting is WAY harder than I ever thought it would be. I think it's harder when you have a child who was a good baby, a good toddler, a good KID and then turns in to one giant pain and you have no idea how or why it happened.
Wednesday morning we had to wake up at 6:15. Did I have to go to work? No. Did Frank have to go to work. No. Did Michael have to go to school? No (stupid third snow day!). Nick had to go to work. He does not get up on time ever so I set my alarm to make sure that he gets up. THEN I have to wake Frank up because HE has to drive the boy to work because the roads are too icy for me to drive AND because the boy STILL won't drive and get his license.
So we put our feet down.
Hard.
Frank drove him to work and the plan was, apparently, for Nick to go out with his girlfriend afterwards. Well, Frank and I had sat down and had a fairly long discussion about how we had had enough. Why do we have to get up while it's dark out for an 18 year old ADULT. Yes, adult. That's what the boy claims to be, but his actions say otherwise. You are either an adult or you are not. He wants to be treated as an adult so we are going along with that.
An ADULT does not get driven to work by his parents. An ADULT mans-up and passes his road test in a reasonable amount of time. An ADULT does not pay for car insurance for 7 months on a car that he cannot drive! That is just poor financing, my friends! So we called him and told him to come home so that Frank could take him out driving because we were done. He refused. I'm serious, he refused. They fought, there was yelling, Frank hung up on him.
Nick called back.
They argued some more and then Frank even got on the phone with Nick's girlfriend and told here where we were at. I refused to get on the phone because, personally, I am DONE. I want no more of this. I am MORTIFIED that I have an 18 year old that refuses to drive. I'm tired of my friends mocking him, I'm tired of our family mocking him, I'm tired of having to drive him everywhere, I'm tired of him not taking responsibility for his life!
So Thursday morning, Michael finally had school again (on a one-hour delay) and so when Frank left to drive him to school, Nick went with him. I told them to NOT go back to the same DMV where we'd been going because CLEARLY there is a problem there. Did they listen? No. They got there and (get this) there was a sign up that they were not doing road tests until after 12 noon because of treacherous road conditions! IT SNOWED SIX DAYS AGO!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So they call me and are like "What do we do?" I wanted to smack them both. I gave them directions to the Raleigh DMV that I had TOLD them to go to in the first place and so off they went.
At 11:33 a.m. on Thursday, February 4, 2010, my son FINALLY got his driver's license.
Can I hear a hallelujah??
*Today's Examiner.com article is on Homeschool Days at Old Salem. You can read about it HERE. Thanks!*
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Way to Go! Now, that is some tough love, my friend!! And, it worked!! YAY!
I'm taking lessons from you! :)
Yeah, but is he gonna DRIVE? My son has his license, but he is still a bit scared to drive too far. He'll go to school and back, but he won't drive to the mall or anything. Teens--ugh.
Good Job momma! I am shocked, though, that he didn't WANT his license! Although, here I think they HAVE to be 18 not 16 to get it. Is it that way there now too? I would think, though, that on his 18th birthday he would have been knocking on your door to get to that DMV.
What's with these kids? A generation ago, I was dying, begging to get my driver's license, go out, and have a (semi) adult life! I was mortified, having my parents drive me around. I actually failed the test twice, and when I finally got it, three weeks before I turned 18, I was the last of my friends to get my license. Once I got it, I was driving ALL over Los Angeles, one of the biggest cities in the U.S. - and points beyond.
In any case, good on ya for putting your foot down! If your son wants to be considered an adult, then he has to do adult things, no way around it - though I know a lot of people who wish differently, LOL!
hallelujah
Post a Comment