New 16 year old son driver...help!?

KEEP an eye on him ..he will do things with your car when your not around that you would not approve of! Your financially responsible for him should he get into an accident until he is 18 years old..I would put some kinda device on his car to see where he is going and the speed in which he is driving the vehicle..If you have a van..get rid of it..that is a place for him to bed his woman...

Oh wow. I remember first getting my license. Scary, but empowering, stuff. If he's a good kid, he'll obey any rules you give him just so he can hop behind the wheel. Lay down the basics; no talking on the cell phone, no driving after "sometime"pm, only 2-3 people in the car and everyone must wear seatbelts, tell us when you're going out and call us when you get there & when you're leaving (at least for the first while, so you'll know if something happened to him), no/restricted highway driving. That was the sort of things I had when I first learned, I respected them, and now my parents completely trust me with their car and give me a lot more freedoms. Just use common sense, and if he's a smart kid, he'll listen. If not....don't take the keys from him, he'll just take them anyway and do something stupid.

That one is a good question, i have an 11 yo boy, and i got scared just to think of what you said.

I believe that you have to trust in him a little, somehow you have given to him all the basis to be a good person, and i guess he is concious of what you expect from him and what would be wrong.

So the same as before, the usual time to get home, and tell him how important is for you to know where is he, all the time, so you can react in some emergency.

Make him concious about the risk that he is taking and the risk that he can become to others, and of course concious of what would happen if he is not careful enougth with this new responsability for him.

I have to agree with TANJ.

I know when I first started driving, my dad told me the same thing. If i was out at a party, and drinking, he would prefer me to call him, rather than drive under the influence.

I have to say, that i called him once... and even though he didn't get angry or upset.. i still felt embarassed to call him after that.

i made it a point not to drink when i was driving after that.

this should definitely be something you use with your child. Trust is a big issue at his age.

as far as having him pay for his own gas.. thats definitely a great idea, and also... you should get him a cell phone. That way you can rest assured you can get a hold of him whenever you need to. Just try not to abuse that, or embarass him while he's socializing.

good luck!!!

We imposed the following rules on our son when he got his license:

* Only place he could drive for the first month was school, unless we were with him.

* Only one passenger in the car for the first 6 months. (will be ended in spring)

* All passengers must wear seatbelts at all times.

He is supposed to be paying his own insurance, but he hasn't found a job yet, so we told him he's gotta do extra chores!

NO more than 1 person in the car unless my mom was with me. As much as I HATED this rule from my mother at the time now that I am a mother of 4 I understand AND it probably did save my life. More people means more distraction.

1. Wear your seat belt. If caught with out it you loose your car/pickup for a month.

2. If you have other kids in the vehicle with you without MY permission. You loose your car/pickup privileges for a month.

3. If you drink and drive you loose the vehicle permanently!

Don't deviate, don't accept excuses and most importantly, make sure he can drive during day conditions as well as night conditions. If this means you ride with him for a while (weekends are best) then do so. Don't assume that a class room has taught him what he needs to know.

GOOD LUCK

Have a reasonable curfew for driving. A curfew in general is always good, but it is expecially important for new drivers when driving in the dark. Also, maybe you should have some sort of system set up in case he gets tickets. so you could let him off for the first ticket (depends on how bad) but if he gets to many (set the system up before and tell him) you can not let him drive for a certain amount of time

i heard something on tv once where a parent can hook up something in the car and they can monitor their kids driving from their computer.well,when some kids get their friends in the car,they try to show off(especially around girls)tell him if you see or hear anything hes doing wrong,you will take the keys from him for a while.he will hate that.my dad told all of us,if we tear it up,we fix it up ourselves,so we learnt real fast to take it easy(especially when we had to work and pay for it ourselves)good luck.some states has what they call cinderella license at a early age.thats when they have to be in at midnight.

Always wear seatbelts!

No passengers for the first 6 months.

Be careful

Pay attention

If grades drop, no car, no driving!

Pay for half the gas if he's driving your car.

If he has his own, get him set up with his own insurance and have him pay for it too.

I have an 18 year old. He got his license, got a job, saved money and bought his own car and has his own insurance that he pays for.