Two teen drivers in the house

Darcy turned fifteen last week and immediately began studying for her driver's permit. In Florida teens have to take a four hour drug and alcohol online course and pass the test that accompanies it. Once that is completed teens study the handbook and then take an online test, twenty questions on road signs and twenty question on road rules. When all of that is complete teens receive their learner's permit, and as far as the state is concerned, can drive home with an adult over the age of twenty-one. Never been behind the wheel of a car before? Florida doesn't care.

Driver's education classes are offered each semester in the school system, but unfortunately cannot be worked into the accelerated program my girls are enrolled in. This leaves them with the option of taking the class during the summer; however, to register for that class one must already have a learner's permit in hand. Classes fill up and close in the first two days. This leaves kids like Darcy to wait an entire year after earning a permit before they can take a driver's education class. But Florida doesn't even care if you take that class. It isn't required. Just drive!

Madison had no interest in driving. She turned fifteen and shrugged. She took the drug and alcohol course and test after turning sixteen because we nagged her. She failed the first driver's online test because her father made her take it without studying, something this kid insists she must do. After turning seventeen, she decided she would just wait until eighteen because according to Florida she can then just go and get her license without needing a permit. Florida doesn't care about practicing driving as long as you are a legal adult.

Darcy passed the drug and alcohol course and test and spent the next day studying for the road tests. She interviewed other teens who had already taken the test and instead of reading the entire handbook, studied those chapters that she was told made the cut for the test. She aced the test and the next day I took her to the DMV and Florida handed her a learner's permit.

She wanted to drive immediately, and since Florida allows that, I took her to a church parking lot, where I hoped for divine intervention if necessary, and I began teaching her about driving. It took longer to go through mirror checks and becoming familiar with the pedals since she had only been behind the wheel of a car when horsing around.

She did well. That doesn't mean I wasn't a nervous wreck. I wish I had the brake on the opposite side, the one my driver's education had to use when I took my hands off the wheel to duck down under the steering wheel to search for the turn signal during my first roadway excursion in a snowfall. She is more confident then I ever was and all she wants to do is DRIVE.

Two days later I was back at the DMV with Madison. It is amazing what sibling pressure can do apparently. As soon as Darcy passed her online test Madison was studying to take hers. Three hours later she had a perfect score. Unfortunately for her, she also had two days of planned activities that kept her from getting her permit the day Darcy got hers.

I drove with Madison around the neighborhood. She was more like me; cautious and slow. I felt more comfortable with her in the speed department, but definitely see that Darcy is more confident. Madison is going to think this whole driving thing through and approach it like she does her studies. Darcy is more like her Aunt Sharon and she is going to just go out and get it done and get it done correctly.

I am not going to make it through this phase. I dread the, "Can I drive?" because no, no I don't want them to drive. I have spent way too many years knocking obstacles out of their way to protect them and now I'm just suppose to sit next to them hopeless while they navigate a two ton piece of machine on the roads with the elderly and crazy non driver's educated teens and adults?

Yes. Yes that is what I am suppose to do, and I'm trying. I really am, but it ain't easy. Tom has taken up the slack, coming home earlier than normal to drive them around the neighborhood. Last night they went out and stayed out after dark to get that experience. Madison actually got to drive on the "road" as Darcy calls anything outside of a neighborhood or parking lot.

I have tried to find other driving courses, but the costs are astronomical, which is why Tom is arriving home earlier. I'm all for throwing money at someone else who has a brake on the passenger side, but he thinks that silly. "They just need experience," he says. My friend has offered to teach them so they don't end up driving "like an old lady like your mother", and she and Darcy were scheduled for a lesson yesterday, but it fell through after Darcy's mouth appliance broke and warranted an unplanned trip to the orthodontist. It has been rescheduled for Monday.

In the meantime I drive with them through the neighborhood, trying to stay calm, trying to be pleasant. I tried to opt out, naming all of the other things I taught them. "Like what?" Darcy asked. "Like how not to poop in your pants!" I replied. But since I'm with them 24/7 now that school is out I have to bite the bullet and help with this life lesson too. Lord help me.