Appropriate punishment if you catch teen texting & driving & speeding?

[Anonymous]

OP, if you don't care enough about your DS's life to do something, please think of my children's lives.

Please do the right thing.

[Anonymous]

My kids know exactly how I feel about texting and driving. I don't do it, and I will not allow them to do it. If they do, they will immediately lose the phone and the car. I also require that they attend a driving class that my husband and I teach before they are allowed to get their license.

[Anonymous]

Take the phone away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hypocritical faux outrage in this thread is funny. I'd guess 75% of people overall text & drive. Teens see mom and dad do it, so they do it too.

Then I guess you are seeing representatives of the other 25% here.

My oldest son drove tow truck for a few years. He texted behind the wheel until his first clean up of such an accident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I let my daughter drive my Escalade on some days to school. Is there a way to track her speeding using on*star?

You say that like you KNOW she speeds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you don't care enough about your DS's life to do something, please think of my children's lives.

Please do the right thing.

Have you read the entire thread?? OP won't be allowed to parent. She defers to her jackass husband

[Anonymous]

OP, you and DH will soon be parents of a murderer if he continues this reckless behavior with no consequence. It's only a matter of time before he hurts or kills AT LEAST 1 other person. How will you feel then? When you could've put a stop to it, when you could've addressed it, but instead, you chose to turn a blind eye?

You're a shitty parent, and that's putting it lightly.

[Anonymous]

Car crashes are the No. 1 cause of teenage deaths. But rather than just fretting at home, concerned parents can now monitor their teens while they’re driving, checking on such things as the car’s speed and location or even its acceleration and braking. It can be done with a small, GPS-enabled device that’s plugged into the car’s diagnostic port, which is usually under the left side of the dashboard. (Watch the videos below on protecting teen drivers and apps that prevent texting while driving.)

We evaluated three models: Mastrack, MobiCoPilot, and Motosafety.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/07/how-to-track-your-teen-driver/index.htm

Make the kid pa for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hypocritical faux outrage in this thread is funny. I'd guess 75% of people overall text & drive. Teens see mom and dad do it, so they do it too.

Come on. You haven't modified any of your behaviors to provide a good role model for your kids?

[Anonymous]

When one of my kids was in high school I found out she had driven home after having a beer at a party. I found a text from a friend checking to make sure she got home ok after drinking "a beer". Who knows. Maybe it was more. Doesn't matter. She was 17 and she knew better. I sold her car the next day. I allowed her to drive my car occasionally after she rebuilt some trust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hypocritical faux outrage in this thread is funny. I'd guess 75% of people overall text & drive. Teens see mom and dad do it, so they do it too.

Then I guess you are seeing representatives of the other 25% here.

My oldest son drove tow truck for a few years. He texted behind the wheel until his first clean up of such an accident.

Yep. I never wore my seatbelt and didn't think twice about texting and driving until I attended an autopsy for multiple traumatic injuries from a car accident as part of my job. The parties were going less than 60 miles an hour and it was a horror scene. If you don't discipline your kid for this, and he continues to harbor the attitude of "it won't happen to me" and endanger everyone around him, you're a grade-A asshole.

[Anonymous]

The OP's kid has been on the road everyday since this happened. 10-plus days (?).

Lovely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask him a bunch of questions to lock down his story before he starts lying to cover his tracks.

Establish that (a) his friend wasn't going 95; (b) he wasn't driving on I-95.

Then BAM. You have a new jeep!

OP, I actually understand your dilemma. If the text read 'just passed Larla going 95" it could mean he didn't type the "on" after going. For all you know, he and his friends could have been looking for Larla at the event and gave up and left and your DS saw Larla driving so he wanted to let his friends know he saw her and that she did leave the event too.

BUT that should still be a HUGE problem because he's texting and driving (even if he's going 50 mph on 95) and there should be consequences. If you want to keep your cover and not disrupt things too much, I suggest going out and getting a flip phone and forwarding his existing smart phone # to the flip phone. Tell him you know for a fact that he was texting and driving. Period. Don't even get into an argument over that part. You don't need to tell him what the text was or what it said (and that may actually make him think you have more insight that you actually do - he ma think you know when/where he texts but not what the texts say).

Take his phone away and give him flip phone. Limit his driving to school, activities and home. Here's where it takes effort on your part. You need to know what his activities are and when, where, and for how long they are. And you time him. Tell him you're timing him and if he is late, the car gets taken away.

Any social events - you drive him and pick him up. He cannot get rides from his friends.

This is a HUGE deal. Even if he was joking (which doesn't even sound like a joke) it is VERY telling that he and his friends think doing that is fun, exciting, brag-worthy, or whatever. That is the attitude that needs to change.

Oh, I also liked the pp's suggesting of having him watch that video and then either writing an essay or (what I would do) is have a talk with him about the video.

[Anonymous]

OP - Think of it this way. If a terrorist came to you and said sell the jeep (or give it away or take away DS's access to it) and take DS's phone away or I'll kill him. Not today or tomorrow, but within 2 years, I'll try to find him and shoot him. Would you do it or would you take your chances that either the terrorist won't find him, won't keep his word, or won't find out that you didn't do what he asked? That's how you have to look at this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hypocritical faux outrage in this thread is funny. I'd guess 75% of people overall text & drive. Teens see mom and dad do it, so they do it too.

Then I guess you are seeing representatives of the other 25% here.

My oldest son drove tow truck for a few years. He texted behind the wheel until his first clean up of such an accident.

Yep. I never wore my seatbelt and didn't think twice about texting and driving until I attended an autopsy for multiple traumatic injuries from a car accident as part of my job. The parties were going less than 60 miles an hour and it was a horror scene. If you don't discipline your kid for this, and he continues to harbor the attitude of "it won't happen to me" and endanger everyone around him, you're a grade-A asshole.

My oldest son drove tow truck for a few years. He texted behind the wheel until his first clean up of such an accident.

Does anyone know if there's a place where teens can go to see this without having the kind of job that exposes you to it? I think this would be so powerful for a teen to see.