For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 30, 2021

so much for freedom, eh, Mike?

She’s letting you learn Michael, be thankful for that.

Michael can’t stand the idea of being responsible…

Aw, Mike just wanna go hot rodding, spin wheeling and showing off. He doesn’t care about who he would share the roads with, the rules or responsiblity. John and Elly know that and are reining him in. They need to realize he wants to give girls rides on top of everything else.

My son was too shy and nervous to attend driver training and get criticized and embarrassed until I taught him how to drive. Then he was praised as the best driver in the class. I don’t think he ever admitted to the teacher that I already taught him.

Who knows how many films of bloody broken accident victims you’ll get to watch?

Michael Patterson follow common sense and sane rules ? THIS I’d like to see! :/

I just applied for a new license the other day and the guy asked me if there were any mistakes on my temporary license- I said “yes, the picture.” He said “they” go by facial recognition and widen the picture. Geesh, if I wasn’t already big enuff!!

Right on Lynn

He’s just so darn impatient

Irl this conversation would have taken place at least a year ago….

There are reasons for Physicians not to treat their own family. Same goes for Lawyers and Teachers. Having someone else teach Michael, will not only save lives. It will save family relationships too.

Another lecture — Ellie does those well.

Professionals have become technicians.

I believe kids need to learn how to handle a car before taking it into traffic. I took all my kids to snowy parking lots to understand overstear & understear (loose & tight), do donuts and generally get out of control. The youngest has been driving 23 years, and there hasn’t been an accident among them.

I wish my daughters’ school had a driver’s program. My high school did, and it saved my parents a lot of money…and sanity.

Wait a minute… Are you supposed to know the rules of the road and all that other stuff before you even get a learner’s permit??

Here is advice to new mothers. When you want to reach your kid, sit down in front of him and talk face to face. When you are lecturing him by actually talking to the kitchen cupboards like it looks here, it will go in one ear and out the other.

We had a driver’s ed program in our high school. I was 15 the year I took it. They had 2 cars, an old Gremlin with a ripped up back seat and a Pacer that had a broken driver’s seat. The seat wouldn’t stay in any position except all the way back, so we had 2 bricks that we put behind it and the person who sat behind the driver had to keep their feet on them so they wouldn’t move. The whole time we were out driving, the instructor smoked and would have us stop once in a while so he could buy more cigarettes. Then, after going through all that, I ended up having surgery on my feet the first Summer I was eligible to get a license, and the next year I had another surgery. I didn’t get my driver’s license until my 18th birthday.

Oh. The young drivers around here have tons of common sense…

Lynn’s Comments:

I taught both my kids to drive. They also went to drivers’ training. One thing that has saved my bacon over and over is knowing “the rules of the road”…and every day I see folks who don’t know half of them!

If you are counting on the government to raise you kids you’ve made a poor choice.

I remember taking drivers ed in high school. I am pretty sure I could not get a permit before I took the training. At least that is how I remember it.

I think everyone should go thru drivers training.

I didn’t get my license until I was 23, when I needed to drive to a new job. When I was ready to take the test, they asked my mother to show her license. It had expired! I had to make a new appointment for my test…

Teenage years are the worst for boys.

I just found out that the drivers ed instructor my nephew has is teaching old techniques from the 1970’s.

You would think all of this would be discussed and understood at least 6 months in advance.

Because parents would have “killed” their kids while trying to teach them. (See school at home during COVID.)

Drivers Ed was invaluable. A shame so many schools have discontinued it.

We had driver’s ed, but we still spent hours with our parents, practicing on empty parking lots.

Where I live at HS no longer offers drivers education, that is done by a private expensive company.Michael you will thank mom in the future, right now you think bad thoughts. Bubble burst. Your mom is right.

First thing you show them is a mangled up car that has been in an accident. Then maybe some pictures of people injured in car accidents. How gory they are is up to you. A few obituaries from the paper of teens that died in car crashes. Schedule a trooper to come to class to lecture you on things he has seen while on the job. Teach them about weather driving conditions. Teach them about LIFE and how to keep it going.

Please Elly, change out of that dress!

Oh yeah. I taught all 4 of my kids to drive, starting back when they were about 12. Michigan had lots of 2 track roads in their massive state and federal forests. Now actually learning to drive on a paved 2 or 4 lane road I left to their HS schools driving instructor. Saved me the headaches

Parental advice at it’s best. The last sentence is amusing.

My daughter is an excellent driver, both RH and LHD, but I could not teach her how to drive a manual shift. A Millennial mental block, she couldn’t get the concept, no matter how much she wanted to be able to drive my car.

Is this really the First time Michael has heard about driver’s training classes?? They were standard classes for everyone back when I learned to drive in the 70’s. My kids took the class in the 90’s.

One of the last things I did before my second wife and I split up, was to teach her to drive. No, that wasn’t the cause of our breakup! But I felt that at 28, she should finally learn to drive, get a license, and be self-sufficient. I taught her on my stick-shift, so she would have the confidence and ability to handle a standard transmission car if she had to, but I bought her a nice, safe, second-hand Volvo automatic.

The driving instructor I hired was incompetent. Mind you, it was not Young Drivers. Just some wingding operation that promised lower insurance rates, and ONLY AFTER I signed up, told me the lower insurance rates came with a different course – defensive driving. I did way better learning from my dad and brother, both of whom drove professionally.

When I was taking drivers ed, I would critique my mutters driving, and she would hate it so much. When I got older and had four sons, each one would tell how much my driving sucked. Ah yes, the “parents curse” in full swing.

Hey, Michael; go get a job as a Wash Boy at a local car dealer.Then you might get to drive a bit.

All Mike hears is Nag Nag Nag, and Nag Nag Nag, and…

My Driver’s Ed course was not offered through school- it was a private company that my parents paid for (after they had tried to teach my brother to drive a few years before that… that was memorable….). The instructor was a JERK and a JOKE. He just kept yelling at me for not knowing how to drive yet. He was obviously used to getting kids who had already been taught, but who were only taking the class to lower insurance rates. My parents, funny enough, thought they were PAYING HIM to TEACH me how to drive. You know, like the course description promised…

And, the way Michael sees it ‘How many teens’ lives have been ruined!’ lol

We had to take drivers ed BEFORE getting the license…is it different in Canada?

Ellie, be careful of what you wish for, you might get it.

Amen, and that is also to relieve student drivers the stress of parents who jump to conclusions that the kids already know how to drive. My parents both were absolute wreaks trying to teach me, but once I went through Drivers Education in high school, they were finally good with me behind the wheel.