| I am currently in the process of teaching my second kid to drive. He is 15. I have a 14 year old and a 13 year old right behind him. So for the next few years, I will be the driver’s ed instructor. I am actually thinking about installing that second brake pedal thingy we had in my old driver’s ed car. One thing that strikes me now, even more than when I taught my oldest (4 years ago) is just how self absorbed people are. I don’t know each situation of course so it is hard to know if they are distracted, selfish, oblivious, uneducated, uncaring or what exactly the motivation is. Either way, the end results are the same. People do not follow road rules, they do not give what should be common courtesy and they do not care at all about your plight. I believe this is a cultural shift. And the worst part is, it is bad here but we are known for hospitality so I can’t imagine how bad it is in places NOT known for that. I will sum up the problem as just selfish. Here’s why, if you are distracted then you put whatever it is that distracts you ahead of everyone else’s safety. That is selfish. If you are oblivious, you are happy in your ignorance and just maintain your “I don’t care” attitude. If you are uneducated, then perhaps it is not you that is selfish, you may not know what you don’t know BUT someone was selfish in not teaching you. If you are uncaring, well, that speaks for itself. At the end of the day, the road continues to become more and more dangerous and I am more and more reluctant to put my kids behind the wheel. And please, if you know me at all, you know that I am not that helicopter parent. I typically say “LEEROOOYYY JENKINSSSS” and run on in with my kids behind me. But it is getting bad. I spend most of my time telling my kid how to anticipate some lame or uncaring thing another driver is going to do. Not only does he have to do the right things, he has to expect that others won’t and try to compensate for that. It’s crazy y’all!! I don’t really have a point to this other than to encourage you to be less selfish. If we all become 10% less selfish on the road, we stand the chance of improving everyone’s experience. Especially the kids. Teach your children well. Hmm, that should be a song 🙂 |
