My kids are not interested in learning now to drive even though there is an extra old car sitting in the driveway that they could use once they have a drivers license. They are fine taking Uber/Metro/bus. We don’t pay for any of those things to encourage them to just learn to drive. At 16 I was so eager to get my license.

My DC with anxiety doesn't have his license yet. He "wants" to drive, but he doesn't put in the time. When I was his age, it would have been impossible for me to go anywhere without my license, so I was motivated. Between friends, Uber, parents, siblings, public transportation, he doesn't have that restriction.

Have also heard that some kids are so scheduled with other activities that they decide to postpone getting their license. They deem it less important.

All of ours got their licenses at 16, but I'm not sure any of them took the test on their birthday. Back in the day, I was at the DMV at 8:00 in the morning on my 16th bday!

Anonymous wrote:My 14 y.o. can't wait to drive. Her friends feel the same way. (She also has a passport- what a weird thing to mention PP!)

Where I live close to downtown Bethesda, with buses and metro, most teens we know are international, with one or more passports, and they tend not to drive, since there's adequate public transport.
We're from Paris, friends are German, Turks, Russian, Korean, Japanese, etc, and they all know the apartment/public transport life of large capitals, despite living in close-in SFHs here. Culturally, none of us think of learning to drive as a rite of passage of high school. It's a life skill, certainly, but my friends and I learned to drive in college. My husband and I passed our test at 19. My cousin who lives in Paris didn't get a license until her 30s. Conversely my other cousin who lives in the French countryside probably drove on her father's property before she was legally allowed!

It's all a matter of culture and public transport availability.

It's definitely a thing.

A generation of kids who have been driven everywhere by their parents, combined with the convenience of Uber/Lyft apps has removed the sense of urgency.

That said, once my DC got his license and started driving, he INSTANTLY appreciated the feeling of "freedom" that driving oneself brings.

Anonymous wrote:All of my 17 yo son’s friends have licenses. Not having one would be restricting and embarrassing to the teens in our orbit. The boys we know love driving.

+1. Same.

My 14 y.o. can't wait to drive. Her friends feel the same way. (She also has a passport- what a weird thing to mention PP!)

^, sorry, PP.

Anonymous wrote:If your kid gets their license late, other parents need to know. Passengers need to know. At 18 we assume your kid has had 2 years of safe driving experience.

That is simply not true, hasn't been for a while, and YOU should be aware of that. Particularly in large metropolitan areas. Also a lot of parents don't allow their inexperienced driver to give a ride to friends.


I don't know in what type of irresponsible circle you live, OP.

Really common not to have your driver's license in DC. Hardly any of my DD's friends have their license and they're all seniors in high school in DC. They get free metro cards so use public transportation a lot, walk places, or take uber.

It's also part of growing up in a more safety-conscious and environmentally-aware society.

We forced my senior to get his license, but he hates driving because he doesn't want to be in an accident, and we have a petrol car that pollutes. NONE of his friends have their licenses.

If your kid gets their license late, other parents need to know. Passengers need to know. At 18 we assume your kid has had 2 years of safe driving experience.

Anonymous wrote:It is the case for almost all the young people I know, including my 17 year old. I made him get a license, said it was a core life skill and once he was licensed, could choose to drive or not. But few of his friends have a license. 4 of my 5 nieces/nephews didn’t get a license until 18 or after. Half my friends kids don’t have licenses at 17+. Definitely a trend n my world.

I grew up in NYC, where you don't really need a car. Nevertheless, my parents insisted that I learn to drive, because it is an important skill to have. I was the same way with my children. Two of them live in cities with excellent public transport; the third lives in an area where it would be very difficult to live without a car. My youngest says that some of their peers did not want a driver's license, so perhaps it is a trend. I did not hear that when my older two were teens. At any rate, it was non-negotiable in my house. All my children had to get a driver's license, and I taught all three of them.

Both my gen Z siblings were 18. They both just want to zone out on their phones in the passenger seat.

Chicken parents promote it because they don't want to put in the work