Steering Kids The Right Way
Wednesday - March 21, 2007
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Del.icio.usIf my wife and I charged our kids mileage for everywhere we had to take them or pick them up, we could probably hire NASCAR great Jeff Gordon to be our chauffeur. If you throw in my mom and my brother, who both help out in the drive-our-kids process, we could probably hire Bill Gates.
It is absolutely unreal the amount of driving I do. My wife is kind of in charge of taking our 9-year-old daughter around, while I am at our 17-year-old son’s beck and call. Actually, our son is on the verge of obtaining his driver’s license. He’s just been too busy to actively pursue it. Either that or he enjoys having me take him around everywhere.
Still, I want to free myself from living on my son’s activity schedule, so I have put the license thing on warp-speed. Every chance we get, I put him behind the wheel so that he can rack up his qualifying driving hours.
The other Sunday we were at my in-law’s house for dinner. When it came time for dessert, my wife asked if I would go to the store. Everyone wanted ice cream so I tapped my son and told him we should hit the road. Instead of going to a store close by, I chose one farther away. That way, he could log more driving time.
As a new driver, he follows all the traffic laws to a “T,” which is nothing to complain about, but can be frustrating when other cars are honking and passing because the car is traveling as though it’s being driven by a 90-year-old senior citizen.
I can’t chide my son for that, but after we picked up the ice cream, I noticed that it was starting to melt and we were still traveling at the speed of a glacier. I was at a moral dilemma while melted ice cream pooled at my feet. After thinking about it, I was suddenly quite proud of my boy.
It’s easy to make choices based on inconvenience and peer pressure - to do the right thing takes more discipline than most people can appreciate.
That, and the milkshakes we had for dessert that night were pretty good.
Ron’s WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
www.kenji-world.net/english/who/who.html
Dave Thorne, who sends me amusing e-mails from time to time, submitted this website for writer and poet Miyazawa Kenji. He was a gifted man who passed on unique observations:
www.kenji-world.net/english/who/who.html
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