Decision Making

So, I'm just getting home from what was a required meeting for my son's school. It was for parents and their teens to discuss teen driving responsibility and mostly drugs and alcohol.

I'm more than confident that my son is far from the pressures of drugs and alcohol. Saying "no" is not a problem for him. My fear is the driving. The percentage of car accidents which were caused by or included teens is vast. The numbers are alarming. I'm sure that my son is and will be a safe driver but it's the other idiots on the road that I'm worried about.

But the meeting's real focus was on teens-drinking and driving. More than 75% of the students said they wouldn't drink, but would be the designated driver for their friends. Wait, hold on...so my first concern is. The students have friends that drink?! None of the parents were concerned with that part of the scenario. Wow!!! I wanted to discuss that further. But instead, we discussed being sure that they called home to say they would be late for curfew, oh and by the way I'm also driving my drunk ass friends home. WTF?!?!!? The consequences behind a). and Number 1....getting stopped by the police!!! then b). driving past curfew. c). driving with drunk teens in the car. So, hmmmm why were we not discussing the foundation of telling the students not to drink at all. Moreover, that if there is drinking at the party they need to bring/take their asses home? So the ramifications....a). and Number 1...the designated driver looses his license (from 6mths-1 year) and has to attend classes, possible community service, oh and receive fines for each drunk ass friend in the car. Oh, and the friends receive citations as well. Also possible rejection from a preferred college they wanted to attend. And last but not least, the inability to say no I've never been arrested on ANY application.

So, why was it OK to let the majority of students in the room agree to be the designated driver, regardless of the consequences? Why weren't we more focused on our children's decision making of who their friends are and what they do at parties. Guess our priorities and values are just different.

Well, I said my peace but that turned into the parents being content with their children communicating with them about drinking-being and getting drunk. WTF!!!

So now, I just pray that my son decides to stay away from their children.......