Friday, April 23, 2010

What's more important?

I posed a question on my Facebook page yesterday about driving home from the After Prom Party at 4am.
My #1 thought he should be allowed to drive home.
I disagreed.

My reasons were simple - it's not safe.
We live 30 minutes from the school at 55mph.
We drive up a highway that is notoriously deer infested and at 4am when there is little to no traffic, the deer can often be found in the middle of the road. (I think they turn on the boom boxes and have a party on the pavement or something!) They don't run away when they see your car, they stop and look at you. They become mesmerized by the lights and if you can't stop, you hit them. This is not healthy for your car or your body.
Now, lets add to that fact that it is supposed to pour buckets this weekend.
Rain, dark, exhaustion, and the possible deer...
This is a recipe for disaster.
He will NOT be driving himself or his girlfriend home.
Some people think I'm cruel and inconsiderate, but I don't much care. Yes, Prom is special, but at 4am, the Prom is over, the After Prom Party is over, and everyone is pooped.
There are too many things that can happen.
I will not allow my child or his date to potentially be a statistic. You know darned well that if, God forbid, something did happen, the world would come down on me - They'd be telling me that I was an irresponsible parent. They'd say it was 4am.  How could you let your teenager drive at that hour after being up since 6 the morning before??  What were you thinking?? He's a relatively new driver!

#1 and I had a long discussion last night. I told him that this was a safety issue. It was not about his driving ability - it was simply a safety issue.
He went upstairs and thought about it.
He called me into his room a few minutes later.
He told me I was right - Safe is much better than sorry.
Yes, my boy... it is.

2 comments:

Renee Nefe said...

way back in the stone ages when I was a kid Prom did not go that late. (course I never went to my Prom) but folks would go for a nice dinner, then to prom and then maybe to the beach for a few hours but were home by curfew because the cops would send you home.

So I totally don't get the 4am thing. But I agree with you that if you're gonna be out that late, better to have a more experienced driver at the wheel. Or a deer wrangler keeping the deer off the roads.

craziequeen said...

I knew #1 would make the right choice - and as it happens the problem has gone away anyway :-)

You have raised a good family there, Missee Bug.
Hope #1 has a wonderful prom and everyone is safe :-)

cq