Keep Your Small Children Off the Streets!

It’s that time of my life again…. I’m getting old fast.  My little blond haired son who stuttered and yelled every word while he ran instead of walking anywhere…. just got his driver’s permit.  He was three-years-old about six months ago.  How does this keep happening to me?  In the past few years, every time he would comment on my driving (like suggesting that I could have made it through the light I stopped at) I would tell him to add two more months past his 16th birthday for a possible driving date.  Funny how he stopped commenting about six or eight months ago…. hoping I would forget all the months that were added. I have not.  What do you think I am?  Old?

Before my 15 1/2-year-old got his permit, I mentioned to my husband that I’m not real comfortable riding with my eldest son behind the wheel.  The last time he drove the van was in 1999 and HE WAS THREE!  He hit a fire hydrant and the van got a hole bashed in the rear bumper. Yes, he went in reverse AND drive!  It’s all still so clear in my motherly-horror-of-horrors-memory.  Back to my comment to my husband.  He responded as a more-than-confident father, “He’s a great driver. He’s a guy. He’ll do fine.  He’s my son.”  I rolled my proverbial eyeballs. Our 18-year-old daughter did an involuntary sputter/choke/laugh.  She then questioned, “What does Dad know that the insurance companies don’t know?”  GREAT question.

Thankfully, my eldest son actually IS a confident and safe driver so far.  We have not ventured onto the highway yet, but his success in parking lots and side streets is quite good.  I’m actually feeling more confident now than when my very nervous and cautious daughter started this process three years ago. 

Two student drivers down.  Two to go.  God help us!

Crash Helmet Time

Yes, it’s true.  She’s driving.  My baby girl, whom I delivered just a few years ago, is behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.  If you live in the vicinity of Phoenix, Arizona, please consider yourself warned.  She has actually been driving for just over a year and she is a good driver if I do say so myself.  But, as the mom, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of your firstborn offspring driving away from the house for the first time in your life.  Who is going to monitor her speed?  Who is going to do every blinkin’ synchronized shoulder check with her?  I don’t enjoy relinquishing any amount of control… at all.  Is this what it feels like to grow up?  I don’t think I like it.

Her first adventure was to Walmart and I sent her brother along for protection.  He’s 11…. but he’s strong.  As they pulled away from the house, he crossed himself in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Made me laugh. 

She was sent with a list and her own cash.  Great!  Now if I send her to the store I have to have cash all the time instead of my handy debit card.  At the checkout line, she said the little old man cashier was a bit surprised a young lady like herself was price matching her vegetables for the lowest possible price in town.  I’ve trained her well. She was aghast, “Mom!  The Roma tomatoes were $2.19 per pound at Walmart!  The price match was $.50 per pound!”  That’s my girl!

This morning she drove herself to school for the first time.  Yes, we still homeschool.  She is taking a writing course and Spanish at a homeschool co-op.  This frees up more time for me, but I’m not sure how productive I’ll be while I pray without ceasing. 

Sometimes I wish they could stay 4-years-old forever.  So innocent.  So sweet.  So imaginative.  So stinkin’ cute.  But I do have my own personal shopper now.   Hmmmmmm.