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Teens not wanting a license trend... why? (1 Viewer)

He has since thanked us for making him do it as he realized how much better his life was with that freedom.
Their freedom?
Hell, it was a blessed day when I no longer had to drive them everywhere. This is the first stage of the launch.
 
He has since thanked us for making him do it as he realized how much better his life was with that freedom.
Their freedom?
Hell, it was a blessed day when I no longer had to drive them everywhere. This is the first stage of the launch.
It's why we just signed him up and made him do it. No way were going to tote him around to all his practices and everything else he wanted to do. Our freedom was implied...haha
 
I'm sure it has to do with being connected to their friends via phone, playstation, ipad, whatever else all the time. KanilJr (13) will ask if he can go "hang out" with his friend on whatever game they want to play together. They sit there and bust each other's balls over voice chat just I did when I was whipping my friends in games in person.

That said, KanilJr will be getting his permit and driver's license the first day possible. He's already asked about taking drivers ed classes so he can get them early. He also has a job lined up once he turns 14 (working at his Taekwondo school) and is already talking about how much easier it will be to get there once he can drive himself. He knows he will have to pay for his own gas and maintenance, although we will pay for his insurance as long as he doesn't get any stupid tickets.

And I'll be pushing to make sure he gets his license ASAP because I've been putting off getting a new car until I can hand my current one down to him when he is ready.
 
My half brother just got his in April 2023 at the age of 33. Up until that point my currently 85 year old Dad had to get up at 4am 4 days a week to drive him to work. When my Dad ended up being hospitalized for 3 months his friends finally forced him to get a license because they were sick of lugging him around. I spent years telling my Dad to make him take the bus or a bike until I finally gave up.
 
Why meet up in person when you can meet up on your phone?
Maybe that's the biggest difference. Aside from getting myself to sports, my second biggest reason to get my own car was to drive to my friends' houses to hang out and, oftentimes when we weren't playing some pickup game, play video games. I suppose that can all be done online now. And, if a kid has a parent willing to shuttle him to and from sports, I suppose that alleviates two main reason to get one's license.

That said, just the pure autonomy was great and I don't understand kids that aren't in major urban areas not wanting the same. I remember the first time shortly after I got my license that I decided at like 10 PM I was hungry. I had this major epiphany that I could drive myself to the preferred grocery store and get myself a cold cut. I felt like I had the world at my finger tips doing so.
 
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Why meet up in person when you can meet up on your phone?

That said, just the pure autonomy was great and I don't understand kids that aren't in major urban areas not wanting the same. I remember the first time shortly after I got my license that I decided at like 10 PM I was hungry. I had this major epiphany that I could drive myself to the preferred grocery store and get myself a cold cut. I felt like I had the world at my fingers doing so.
That's what my daughter does; late night fast food runs. My 15 year is already talking about it.
 
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My daughter (a few months short of 14) has no plans to drive right when she's able. She says she'd rather have an e-bike. Maybe that sentiment will change in a year or so.
Good for her
Respectfully, you're in Minneapolis where public transportation is reasonably good so an e-bike may be a nice option. It's not the same everywhere else, though.
 
My 24 year old son waited until 20 to drive. I just could understand why he would wait. Its a right of passage for a young male. I felt frustrated and lonely as to why he wouldn't push for a car as soon as he was or age. Then the next 4 years he precedes to total 2 cars, have 3 other minor accidents, get 2 flat tires on hwys, and have countless phone calls to me that the car won't start. Today. I have adjusted my opinion and wish he would stop driving. His driving is arguably my biggest stress in life. I wish he would have waited longer. Ha ha
 
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Also, I'm not sure what the laws are in other states, but here kids are supposed to sit in the back seat until they are 13. This has created a generation of kids who have no idea where they are without the map on their phone. I once asked my daughter when she was about 12 if she would be able to find her way to school (about 5 miles away) if she had to walk or ride a bike, and she admitted that she probably would get there eventually but she wasn't positive.
Sense of direction is a lost art. GPS has made it obsolete in everyday life.
 
Our area has no feasible public transportation so both of my kids are excited about driving. My son is 18 and got his license 2 days after his birthday and my 14 yr old daughter is already talking about her learner's permit.

They've had to sit and wait for rides or miss out on stuff because they couldn't get a ride often enough that they want it.

My son has been an excellent driver so far. Just one ticket and one flat tire (he hit a curb hard on that one). We made him pay part of both issues and he's been very careful since.
 
Also, I'm not sure what the laws are in other states, but here kids are supposed to sit in the back seat until they are 13. This has created a generation of kids who have no idea where they are without the map on their phone. I once asked my daughter when she was about 12 if she would be able to find her way to school (about 5 miles away) if she had to walk or ride a bike, and she admitted that she probably would get there eventually but she wasn't positive.
Sense of direction is a lost art. GPS has made it obsolete in everyday life.
When my kids were in the 12-13 year old range I would make them tell me how to get home from their school, the store, soccer practice, etc.

We would talk about start looking around at landmarks that remind you that you are close to home, or your school, whatever. They then start connecting the dots. My 14 year old daughter is the next one to drive, so she is getting a lot of this treatment now.

Parents have to make their kids want to drive in my opinion. The last thing I want to do at this point is drive my kids around to stuff when they are fully capable.
 
If true, this is definitely different that my experience when I turned 16. I got perhaps the second most angry with my mom that I've ever been. I qualified for some early opportunity to get my license (due to good grades and taking driver's ed) and my mom told me she would sign off if I completed some task. I completed said task and my mom backed out on her promise, stating that she didn't think I'd actually get said task completed and she didn't want me to be driving just yet. I was so mad.
Take the L lol
 
This is probably one of the biggest cultural differences between the US and the UK, not only here is driving without insurance a criminal offence, over here we have (had?) a much greater level of functioning public transport so there is not quite the immediate need to get a licence, and the insurance would likely be prohibitively expensive if you did.

As to why it's happening in the US? I don't know, I don't live there, there's probably some proportion of the population so clueless that think if they don't drive it'll save the planet and prevent Colorado from being underwater 100 years from now, but outside of that? Other than expense, no idea
The amount of cars without any registration at all is jarring. Not just expired registration, but expired temp tags or no tags at all. Police do not enforce this.
 
I have four kids. The first three couldn't get their licenses fast enough, which I could relate to. My youngest, who is 19, has no interest in getting a license.
 
My daughter (a few months short of 14) has no plans to drive right when she's able. She says she'd rather have an e-bike. Maybe that sentiment will change in a year or so.
Good for her
Respectfully, you're in Minneapolis where public transportation is reasonably good so an e-bike may be a nice option. It's not the same everywhere else, though.
:shrug:
I have no idea where nirad lives and made no comment on the state of public transportation or the ability of others to get by with an e bike.
 
This is probably one of the biggest cultural differences between the US and the UK, not only here is driving without insurance a criminal offence, over here we have (had?) a much greater level of functioning public transport so there is not quite the immediate need to get a licence, and the insurance would likely be prohibitively expensive if you did.

As to why it's happening in the US? I don't know, I don't live there, there's probably some proportion of the population so clueless that think if they don't drive it'll save the planet and prevent Colorado from being underwater 100 years from now, but outside of that? Other than expense, no idea
The amount of cars without any registration at all is jarring. Not just expired registration, but expired temp tags or no tags at all. Police do not enforce this.
I've said for years that you are less likely to get pulled over with no plates than with expired plates.
 
My daughter (a few months short of 14) has no plans to drive right when she's able. She says she'd rather have an e-bike. Maybe that sentiment will change in a year or so.
Good for her
Respectfully, you're in Minneapolis where public transportation is reasonably good so an e-bike may be a nice option. It's not the same everywhere else, though.
:shrug:
I have no idea where nirad lives and made no comment on the state of public transportation or the ability of others to get by with an e bike.
I'm in sunny suburban SoCal where very few people ride busses and there is no light rail around us. My kids' "bubbles" are pretty small. They go to Starbucks (around the corner) or to their friends' houses which are maybe 5-10 minutes away via ebike. That said, I suppose it'd be nice if my daughter had a car to take herself to the movies (much further away)
 
Can't drive till 18 here. My son dragged his feet and took over av year to go thru the process. To be fair he doesn't really have many places to drive. Takes the S-Bahn into the city for Uni. We let him drive to basketball training on weeknights (one town over) and he drives himself to work at 6am 2x a week. Total damage was just north of 3600€. Worth it getting to sleep in
 
I never had my DL until I was almost 20 years old. Parents didn't buy me a car, never let me drive theirs and I didn't find a need until after I met my wife at college
And even then she drove us around for a while, taught me how to drive and then I finally got it.
 
Both my wife and I got our permit at 15 and then our DL on our 16th birthday many many years ago.

Our oldest daughter waited until she was 19 primarily because she went to college out of town right out of high school and had no need for one until she came back for a summer job. She totaled our car 3 weeks after she started driving, but the couple she hit didn't want the police involved, so she dodged one there.

Our other daughter is 20 and just got her license this summer. I know I wrote about this in another thread, but she had three friends killed in 3 different car accidents and another died from a terminal illness all from her senior year in high school to her 1st semester in college. Two of them were pretty close friends. This traumatized her to the point she just had no interest in driving. Throw in the fact she has anxiety and she failed the written test twice and the driving test once. She quit the university life after one semester and enrolled in the local community college and got a full time job when she was 18, which meant every day my wife and I were in the car driving her around for over a year and a half. Some of those nights when she would get out of work at 2:30 am really stunk let me tell you. Now that she started driving and bought her own car, it is amazing (yes for us of course), but the absolute happiness and joy she has with this new found freedom is beyond words. The only worry I have is she LOVES the highway and I do all I can to avoid that mess. We still are helping her out on days the roads are icy, but that will come for her.
 
Many of the teens I work with (independent high school, very affluent) face nearly crippling anxiety about starting a paper or turning in a homework assignment or having to talk to someone on the phone in real time. The thought of being behind the wheel of a multi-ton, fast moving missile is unfathomable to many of them. They're frozen stiff.
 

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