I just want to rant and vent about my frustration and anger I have with my parents and their decisions for me. In my softmore year of high school I had just got done finishing my class for Drivers ed and was ready to take my permit test, so I later walked up to my mom and asked her about it. She replied “I don’t have the money to take you” she told me it was a 300-dollar fee for starting. This confused me, I was always under the impression that you didn’t pay and you just walk in and take it, at that time of course I was a kid and gullible to an extent. I had soo much going on in school and a lot of social responsibility that I didn’t give it much thought after she said that, so I went about my year with that in my head until the summer when all my friends started using their cars and asked me why I didn’t have my permit yet. I then figured that my initial concern was right. when I told my parents about it they finally came out and said to me that they are just afraid of going through the whole process of me learning to drive and want me to be at least 18 before I start to drive. I argued with them for years for them to change that decision, I don’t understand how you can deny your child that responsibility to take on their own. that’s a HUGE mile stone. Can you imagine how embarrassing that is to tell your friends/girlfriends I can’t drive to…ect because of my parents" so all throughout high school I had to take rides from other friends. When I turned 18 we had just moved again after the 14th time, I pounded them to take me until they gave in and I got my permit. Here’s where it gets worse. I worked for months to save up for a car to where I had about 2300$ saved up. well when we did move that money had to be stripped away to help pay towards another house because my aunt was a bad alcoholic… So my semester through college was on a bus (as if I didn’t have enough of it in high school). during that time, they promised me that I would get the van when they were done paying it off which was in a couple of weeks. after it was paid off they were able to get a new car and my driver’s test was scheduled soon. So I told them how excited I was to get the van. they told me "we don’t know if we can give you the van because of the problems that have been occurring with it, then they say in a condescending tone “You…don’t…even…have…your…drivers…license…yet”…(starts the big bang all over again)
Maybe you should try looking at it from your parents perspective. It seems unlikely from your story that they can afford to buy you a car. They might need to sell the van in order to put down a payment on the new car. There also might legitamately be issues with the van that are a saftey concern. If you can’t afford to buy a car yourself then you really can’t be angry at them for not providing you one. Driving is a privilege, not a right. I understand that it must have been frustrating to not be able to get your permit at 16, but they were well within their rights to deny your being able to take the permit test since you were still a minor and under their supervision. You’re coming off as quite entitled in this post. There are plenty of people in college - and plenty of people with full time jobs - that don’t have cars; you’ll live.
Many college students don’t have cars. Some grad students don’t have cars. Sounds like your parents have had a tough time financially. There is a lot of interest now in sustainability and environmentally-minded students would prefer to take mass transit, walk, or bike.
I don’t mean to come off entitled at all. Financially they are fine and so am I.my parents have 4 cars they use, two for work(including the company car) and 1 that just sits in the garage along with the van. I work 2 jobs and go to school fulltime and I actually can afford to buy the van and repair it and/or a car right now if I wanted to. I get they had the right to “deny” me that lol, I just wanted to point how later in that social situation they didn’t acknowledge that- what their initial reason was. They turned around and assumed I was the reason I didn’t get it when I was of age(16). My parents can be forgetful at times, its a little humorous to see them say something like that and believe it at that moment. when I was 18 they allowed me to be independent and stopped making decisions for me(like most parents do). So Lately these are just things iv been noticing. I have brothers and sisters so sometimes they cant keep up with my life as much as they’d like, so they often forget the things like that.
My son did not get his drivers license until he was 18 because he was uninterested and too busy. He spent his time studying to get a scholarship to help us financially. University is expensive. He felt that was the right thing to do. He had to finally get the license when he got an internship over the summer and needed to drive to work from that. If he had not spent all that time studying his field of interest he would not have that internship and the job offers that followed. Now he can pay for whatever he needs. Focus in the important things to help yourself and your family.
I don’t think you come across as entitled…I would say the norm is that it is normal not to have a car during college but it is normal to have a driver’s license. I would say, being charitable, that your parents dropped the ball on the license. Being uncharitable it seems like they are trying to keep power over you.
I would suggest trying to be as independent as possible…keep up the pressure on them to let you drive and get your license.