Posted on 02/16/2026 7:48:48 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
As a mom of three kids, Christina Mott had been counting the days until her oldest son, Colton, got his driver's license.
It falls on her to drive each of them — age 10, 12, and 16 — to three different charter schools every day, and then to extracurriculars and social outings. "Having him able to drive himself would free up a lot of time," she says. If only.
While out one day on his learner's permit, Colton rolled through a red light and a stop sign. He panicked and decided to put his license on hold indefinitely. "Getting in crashes, that's something that scares me a lot," Colton explains.
That means his mom is still chauffeuring three kids around their Northern California suburb. Christina, who's 46, says a lot of her fellow parents are going through the same thing: Teenagers are slamming the brakes on the time-honored rite of passage of getting a license at 16, either out of fear or because they're put off by the process or the costs. And that means a lot of Gen X parents are stuck behind the wheel longer than they bargained for.
Even so, she admits Colton doesn't feel quite as ready for a license as she was at 16. "He's not very observant and tends to live in his own world," she says. "I don't think, without GPS, that he would even know how to get to the grocery store from our house that we've lived in for eight years. So, the idea of him dealing with traffic lights and other drivers makes me nervous, too."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
A key metric of maturity is a license. I learned that someone 19, 21, even 28 without one has other major personality problems.
Hmmmmm...no mention of Colton’s dad anywhere in the piece. You know, the half of the parent duo that would teach him about how to handle risk.
Instead, mama has successfully put all her fears into him, turning out yet another soi-boi.
I blame kids scrolling on their phones while in the car. That’s how you learned to drive, by observation.
Things have really changed. My friends and I were eager to get our driver’s licenses, when we were that age fifty plus years ago.
It was a step towards assuming responsibilities as well as having some freedom to go places and do things.
I remember my father had me take responsibility for getting gas in the cars, and for taking the cars for oil changes, and taking the car to the shop for repairs.
It sounds like many in this generation are missing out on things like that.
“drive each of them — age 10, 12, and 16 — to three different charter schools every day, and then to extracurriculars and social outings.”
Who in the everlovin’ phooook thinks this is somehow normal?
Cut the umbilical cord already.
I have plenty of bad things to say about School Administrators, Teachers Unions, and Teachers.
But the core problem today — when it comes to young people — is that so many parents have no idea how to parent. They raise kids who cannot transition to adulthood. Parents today hurt their kids, and they make it nearly impossible for schools to function.
I have no idea how to fix the parenting problem.
I was driving a John Deere tractor at 10 years old pulling peanut trailers. My brain can’t even go where this article takes us.
I haven’t seen this. I have 3 sons, all got their licenses the instant they were eligible. Same with their friends. It does save my wife and I plenty of driving. We are in an affluent suburb of Boston, that might have something to do with it.
I was counting the days months and years to getting my permit (age 14) then my driver’s license (16) since I was probably 11 or 12.
We lived in a very rural area and to do ANYTHING required a drive of at least 6 miles to the town the school was in.
Freedom, autonomy (to a certain extent) and GIRLS!!!
Don’t get me started on CDL stupifications that the government smears on everbody now just because of a broad brush approach that this article normalizes.
Not everybody is stupid and a real truck driver can change gears if not I don’t want it holding my wheel.
Quite frankly, here in Jurassic Park, drivers over 70 are a hazard. They have all the symptoms of attention deficit disorder that afflict 16 year olds.
Quite frankly, here in Jurassic Park, drivers over 70 are a hazard. They have all the symptoms of attention deficit disorder that afflict 16 year olds.
Maybe single momma can’t afford a new car and insurance.
I have this mental picture of Colton and his date out watching the submarine races with his mom at the wheel.
Reality has changed. Mobility used to be the key to a wide world. You could only go as far as you could walk until you got a bike, then you upgraded to the bus, and finally your own car. But the internet has changed all that. You now have access to the entire world on your phone. I once had my friend’s 10 year old ask me if I like KPop, and then proceed to give a “tour” of Kpop bands on various streaming services on their phone. With that kind of total access who wants to drive. You can’t play on the internet when you’re driving.
Yes, no doubt the addiction to “social media” explains this. Not just kids staring down at their phones and not watching as the adult in the car drives, wanting to try it themselves. But perhaps also the whole shortened attention span thing. Maybe young Colton, having spent years staring at a fixed object, isn’t able to look around, observe what’s going on around him. He’ll be shopping for a self-driving car in a few years’ time.
16 is the new 8. Do we really want them driving?
The only reason I got my license at 17 was that I lived in Japan until I was 16. In my USA high school, everyone took driver's ed at 15 in order to get the license at 16, and there were perhaps a half dozen of us in a "classroom" of over 200 who were 16 or 17.
OTOH, my sister, who turns 75 this year, never got a license: she has lived in center city Phila. for a half century, and to her a car was a nuisance, though getting the license does not require owning a car.
Most teens will eventually get their licenses, the data shows — they’re just waiting a lot longer.”>> And that’s fine but at a certain point you learn to walk. No uber.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.