Parents of teens: When did you let them drive alone?

[whoiam]

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[EdiePA]

My boys were allowed to drive alone from the time they got they license. However, they were NOT allowed to drive anyone else in the car until they had been driving for six months. At that point, they could have ONE friend in the car.

Statistically, it's been shown that teen accidents happen when young drivers are distracted -- we always felt that friends in the car was a distraction.

Edie

 

[Magic Mom]

So DD16 just got her license 3/15, she's been 16 since November but just got it. She just drove for the first time yesterday by herself down to the grocery store (about a 2 minute drive) and now she's begging me to let her drive her friends to the movies this weekend. Lol not quite sure that's going to happen this soon.

So parents of kids with their driver's licenses, when did you let them drive alone? What about driving other people? Just curious what other parents chose!

I let him drive alone as soon as he got his license. But the law here with your intermediate license, is you can only have 1 non relative under the age of 18 in the car with you. So he couldn't drive all of his friends around. Only one at a time.

 

[Darcy03231]

In our state you're only allowed to have one unrelated person under the age of 26 in your car for the first six months of a new license, so my kids could only have one friend.

I pretty much let them drive alone once they had their license. By that point they had 6 hours of observation time with the school, and 10 hours of driving time with the school and another 40 hours of driving time with us (and 10 of those hours had to be at night). I did have rules about when the car had to be home and parked in the driveway (9 pm on school nights, unless working later and 11 pm on weekends, unless something special was going on).

 

[golfgal]

As soon as they got their license. They had their permits for almost a year and have done a LOT of driving. Our twins got their licenses' last week, we haven't actually seen DD16 since It is SOOOO nice not having to cart them around. We had DS18 for 2 years to help and then he has been gone at college so we had to start again. .

In our state they can only have one non-related driver in the car for the first 6 months they have their license so that cuts out driving a car full of friends around. It is somewhat of a pain because our kids do a LOT of carpooling for band and golf and won't be able to do that this year.

 

[pixiefairy]

This thought has been on my mind a lot lately, as my son is in drivers ed. right now. Once he gets his blue slip, he has to wait about 6 months until he can get his license, which will put him around December some time. In our state, they can only have one person under the age of 18 with them in the car..although I don't see that happening too much with the local high schoolers. I'm a worrier, and I'm trying to just take it as it comes. He can't wait though..

 

[dislaney]

I let him drive alone as soon as he got his license. But the law here with your intermediate license, is you can only have 1 non relative under the age of 18 in the car with you. So he couldn't drive all of his friends around. Only one at a time.

That's how it is here too. So mine couldn't drive a group of friends around which was fine by me!

 

[Ally192]

Not a parent but a teen driver myself.

My parents let me drive alone right after getting my license; I got my license on a Saturday and I drove to school (about a 15 minute drive on the interstate) the following Monday.

It's a law in GA that 16-17 year olds can't have anyone other than immediate family riding with them for the first 6 months so we followed that.

 

[Hannathy]

As soon as she got her license. Same in our state only 1 friend while on conditional license which is a year or under 18.

 

[whoiam]

Ah I didn't know about other states having restrictions like that! Here in FL the only restriction on a license is kids 16 years old can't drive from 11 PM to 6 AM and 17 year olds can't drive from 1 AM to 5 AM unless accompanied by someone 21 and older (licensed), which is a little but it's gonna be a while before I let her drive with friends anyway.

 

[LisaNJ25]

The same day he got his licence.. He got his a month after his 18th birthday in November. As for other people in his car by law he can only have one non family member.

 

[laurie31]

Ah I didn't know about other states having restrictions like that! Here in FL the only restriction on a license is kids 16 years old can't drive from 11 PM to 6 AM and 17 year olds can't drive from 1 AM to 5 AM unless accompanied by someone 21 and older (licensed), which is a little but it's gonna be a while before I let her drive with friends anyway.

Just becase it's not law in your state doesn't mean you can't make it "Mom's Law" in your home!

Lots of studies prove that multiple passengers increase the risk of a teen driver having an accident.

For teenagers, the risk of being in a crash increases when they transport passengers-the fatality risk of drivers aged 16-17 years is 3.6 times higher when they are driving with passengers than when they are driving alone, and the relative risk of a fatal crash increases as the number of passengers increases.

http://dmv.ca.gov/teenweb/more_btn6/traffic/traffic.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Teen_Drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html

Having said that, I drove alone from the day I got my licence, and I expect my DDs will as well (older one gets her permit in 5 months! ) but we have already talked to them about the "only one friend in the car" rule. It is law in our state, but it only became law very recently. We were already going to make it a rule for our kids.

So if I were you, I would let my DD drive to the movies, but wth only 1 friend in the car.

 

[whoiam]

Just becase it's not law in your state doesn't mean you can't make it "Mom's Law" in your home!

Lots of studies prove that multiple passengers increase the risk of a teen driver having an accident.



http://dmv.ca.gov/teenweb/more_btn6/traffic/traffic.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Teen_Drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html

Having said that, I drove alone from the day I got my licence, and I expect my DDs will as well (older one gets her permit in 5 months! ) but we have already talked to them about the "only one friend in the car" rule. It is law in our state, but it only became law very recently. We were already going to make it a rule for our kids.

So if I were you, I would let my DD drive to the movies, but wth only 1 friend in the car.

Oh believe me, I think 6 months sounds about good for us too. If even that! I hope FL catches onto this law soon. I know I can make my own rules for DD but it's the other parents/drivers you can't be so sure about!

I think that's probably what we're going to end up doing.

 

[AristocatFan]

As soon as they got their license they drove alone. But we also have the wait six months for passengers law. (for older son it was only 3 mos.). DS16 got his license last Dec and by law is only allowed to transport his siblings, he has driven his older brother but not his younger sister.

Oh, and older son had a pickup truck. He couldn't take more than one passenger!

 

[mamacatnv]

No friends at all - DS drove by himself the day he got his license. After a few months we let him pick up his sister from school etc.
He was not allowed to have "friends" in the car until he was 18, had been driving for 2 years and it was someone we knew, mainly his girlyfriend.

Friends can be a major distraction, even to good teen drivers.

 

[Owlpost23]

You all are lucky-we WISH our daughter would drive by herself,but she won't.She has her license since last fall,and if she's driven by herself five times that would be pushing.She took driver's ed outside school,and I guess the car crash movies were pretty awful.She's really reluctant,and we don't want to push her,but come on already.

 

[hj0519]

I drove alone right after I got my license, but not other people. In my state, you couldn't drive anybody else unless with a licensed driver for three months, then you could start driving family members, and then after six months you could drive people other than family without a licensed adult in the car. Some of my friends' parents didn't follow the rules, but my parents were very strict about it.

 

[fall08CP]

Not a parent but I got my license in the last decade..

I got my license on my 16th birthday and drove alone to school (12 miles each way) the very next day. The only problem I had was a few weeks later I got a flat tire near school and my parents were both at work. I was able to pull into mcdonalds and an employee helped me pump up the car and i knew how to change the tire.

 

[clh2]

DD got her license the day after she turned 16. We got home at 4pm that day, I was on the phone with the insurance company immediately, and at 4:30 - DD left for swim practice - about 15 miles away.

Eventhought the state of Wis. allows 1 unrelated kid in the car immediately after getting the license, we didn't let her have friends in the car for 2 months, and then only for "business" purposes not f or going to the mall/movies.

 

[crz4mm2]

DS was 16 1/2... I didn't want him to get his license... DH took him.

DD was 16. Much more reliable. She bought her own car and bought her own gas and insurance.