Hello everyone!
I am having the problem that my parents aren’t letting me drive at all, not even with them. I have a learners license and start college in less than two months. After years of begging I was finally allowed to go to drivers ed at 17. My eighteenth birthday, as well as college start are in less than two months. I need to drive to be able to get to school and other activities; however my parents always put excuses and refuse. I feel like drivers ed and everything was useless. Help please!
Not sure how to help. As a parent I wanted my kids to learn to drive and get their licences as soon as they were able to. My rationale was that I wanted them to get experience, confidence and a respect for the responsibility that the privilege of driving entails while I controlled the keys. Maybe you can use the same rationale I had on your parents.
When you say you need to drive to school, do you mean living at home and commuting each day or just coming home from the school dorm once in a while?
I didn’t let any of my kids have a car at college their freshman year. Many students don’t have cars their freshman year and those that do become either taxi drivers or lending their cars (and paying for everyone else’s gas). Not having s car for a freshman was advice we got on a couple of school tours by the student tour guides.
Maybe your parents have some concerns about your maturity and judgement. In your other post about driving you said they want you to be more responsible.
In January you asked how to get your parents to let you go on a weekend road trip to a cabin 3 hours away with 9 other seniors (mostly boys). You said you didn’t think they’d let you go but wondered if asking your mom to go with you would sway them. Coincidentally, before you mentioned the trip to your parents one of the boys told his mom and dad that your mom had agreed to chaperone. If I got a call from the parent of one of my daughter’s friends asking me about details for a trip I knew nothing about that they’d been told I was supervising, I’d have concerns too.
I’m guessing your parents didn’t find that very funny. If I couldn’t trust my kid to be honest about what they were doing and with whom, I’d be reluctant to pay for a license and insurance too.
there’s nothing humorous about it actually; my parents and all of my friends parents trusted us and we went. the trip was great. i already have a license and am covered by the insurance lol
You are not a cost on their insurance as a learner driver, it is once you get your real license you become a financial burden.
Are your parents not confident or good drivers? You can pay to get on road lessons. Around here a short course including test is about $300. As you have drivers ed you probably have done a little driving. If your parents are not going to allow you to drive their vehicles or pay your insurance, you might be like many young people, expected to get a job and pay your own way. If you do pass your test on your own dime once over 18, your parents will have to insure vehicles kept at the home you live in for your potential use, whether they like it or not, this was how it rolled with our insurance (there are exclusion possibilities, but not straightforward verbal refusal). Once the insurance companies knew we had learner drivers, they would call us every few months to see if the kids had passed their tests . This is probably happening already at your house. Sit down and have a discussion and bring something to the table. You say you need to drive to college, your parents seem to think differently. You should have a plan. In reality, at 18, you can get your own license without their approval. Again, in my locale, all the special reqs for young drivers are moot when over 18. This would be very foolish of your parents to choose IMO. Experience is the biggest key.
Will you be commuting to school or dorming? If you’re commuting, how do they think you’re getting to school?
What’s the difference between a learner’s permit and a full license in your state? Do you have to take an additional test or is the change automatic?
Do you need to drive to get to HS?
Do you need to drive to commute to college?
Do you need to drive to get to college freshman year?
can you tell us more about your situation?
I don’t understand how you could be “begging for years” about driver ed because the earliest you could do it is 16?
DOn’t you have it in school?
THere could be a few scenarios:
Parents are controlling and don’t want you to have freedom and go to college at all
Parents don’t have money for additional insurance for you when you become a driver
Parents don’t trust your driving/maturity level
Parents don’t want you to get a license because they don’t want you using their car/asking for a car.
If you don’t know what is going on, then ask them. Say that you want want to have a license as that is a skill that adults need. Tell them that their car is their car and they can decide when/if you drive it, but you would like this summer to practice under their supervision so you can get your license before you go to college. If they won’t let you do that, then ask what their concern is.
You need someone 21 or older to drive with–it doesn’t have to be your parents.
I finally got a drivers license because my mother insisted I might be face an emergency demanding a driver. Insurance and the cost of an additional car may be prohibitive.
Commuting by bus allows you to relax and look out the window. Additionally, you would ride in a large vehicle that can travel in horrible weather and road condition. Then there is a dependable schedule. All for a decent fee, even without a pass, to get to and from school. Also is a good option getting to work. Have experienced drivers in multiple places stop at unscheduled places, even home, in bad weather with regular passengers. Kinda like mail, riding on a bus is one of the really great bargains for what you spend.
You may also find someone who commute to your school. Your schedule, however, depends on the driver’s schedule. You have to rely on the driver’s skill in all sorts of weather and kinds of roads. Theb there is prolonged conversation…