Usually it turns out the other way around. Usually the youngest child gets things or gets to do things way earlier than the older ones did. Maybe I’ve become a slacker mom. Or maybe God is using my overstuffed life to work patience in my child. I don’t know. But either way, I feel bad.
My youngest son won’t get his drivers license on his 16th birthday next week. His brother and sister each got theirs on the day. He will have to wait. He hasn’t complained. Or pitched a fit. Or blamed me. But that almost makes me feel worse! If I hadn’t insisted he get his permit a year before his license, like the other two did, we could have done the driving school in town. But there wasn’t time to take the class last fall. I should have just let him do it in early summer and forgone those five extra months of practice time rather than “homeschooling” him for drivers ed, a course we are frantically trying to completely finish, though he has been driving in bits and pieces for the past year.
I know in the scheme of things it really isn’t that big of a deal. It’s not like I need him to drive—not like I needed his older brother to because their sister was leaving for college. And I know it puts off the inevitable spike in the car insurance, too. I’m trying to find the positives, see the good, but in the back of my mind the only thing I can hear is “Teacher, you failed.”
At least it was only his driver’s license, not his entire education!
Don't feel bad. I received incorrect information when my #2 child turned 15 that Colorado had changed the law for new drivers and he wouldn't be able to get his permit until he was 15-1/2. I didn't check it out. (It was a bill, but it didn't pass.) Hence, he got his license a full 6 months after his 16th birthday, when all his friends got theirs on the day. Oops.
Oh my! Thanks for sharing. It makes me feel not so alone. 🙂