Driven To Distraction?

Posted on December 7, 2009 
Filed Under Fathering, Parenting, Personal

Last week it was time to mark another milestone. I took my daughter for the rite of passage that is…a driving permit. She passed the test, paid the $14 and posed for her photograph. And so the process begins, again.

For the third time now I’ll be training a teen driver the ways to navigate the road. Fifty hours – minimum – and a year’s wait, and she could be slipping in behind the wheel of an automobile, all by herself. Meantime, we’ll cover a variety of basics, I’ll make sure she knows how to change a tire, and we’ll have some quality time together.

Safety, of course, is the primary goal. I want my kids to become good drivers, in a variety of weather conditions and with different circumstances like heavy highway traffic and everyday distractions. I want them to demonstrate confidence and competence as they tool around in several tons of sheet metal.

But what to do about those ubiquitous cell phones? Here in Colorado, there’s a new law banning teens from texting while driving. I’m alright with the concept of discouraging risky driving habits, but from what I can tell, that is a very general law, one which might be hard to enforce (how can a patrolman tell if the individual was texting, or just dialing a number, or perhaps checking the GPS for directions?). Matters not, as my new drivers already have a no-cell-phone-while-the-car-is-moving policy, so texting isn’t supposed to happen anyway. And I’ve told my older children that they will have to pay for increased premiums resulting from any accident that they cause.

Still, who can separate a teen from their phone? That wasn’t a problem for me when I was 16, because the phone cord couldn’t even reach out the door, let alone into the car! Seriously, though, while technology battles for a driver’s attention, you may be tempted to think this is a rather new phenomena. Well, you’d be wrong! “Car phones” date back to the 1960s. If you doubt my word, check out this dated photo and the accompanying article about the telecommunication industry’s plan to bring drivers and phones together. I’m glad phones have gotten a little more sophisticated, aren’t you?

My daughter is really looking forward to this process, and truth be told, so am I. While we’re out learning how to drive well, I’ll make sure that neither of us is talking or texting. Any other readers in agreement with me?

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