Suggestions for Parents
Even though our family established some important rules for our teens, Sean made one bad decision the night he died. We continue to believe that these suggestions are valid, and offer them to you for consideration. We learned the hard way, through the loss of our son, that it takes thousands of hours behind the wheel in a supervised setting to produce a safe driver.
- We had our kids wait until they were 17 to get their license. We drove with and coached them during the first year they had their learner’s permit.
- We had our kids pay for their own driver’s education classes, insurance and car.
- We limited the selection of cars they could buy after researching safety factors.
- We did not allow other teens in the car with them until they were 18 (except brother or sister).
- We always wore our seat belts and required all passengers to wear seat belts in our cars.
- We did not allow our kids to ride in another teen’s car until they were 18.
- We set reasonable curfews and knew where they were every time they went out.
- We never consumed alcohol or illicit drugs as role models.
- We encouraged our teens to bring their friends over to our house.
- We talked with them about life and listened to their hearts.
- We prayed for their safety every day.
We are now painfully aware of a number of additional resources to help make our teens safer drivers. We share these with you in hope that it will save your son or daughter’s life. Please review each of the web sites and attachments that we have in our Resources section, and choose the ones that are best for you. We would love to hear from you about your teen’s driving experience. Contact us!
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