One of the dangers

Of riding in cars with boys, is when one of the boys starts to drive the car. Son 1 has been starting to practice. around the block 2-  3 times, in and out of the garage. The usual things to cut ones teeth on. Friday morning we were all off a bit and I asked him to take the van out of the garage. We don't have an easy garage, we have a pole right in the middle of it making getting in and out of the driver's door difficult ( and adding another reason why I am done having children to the list, NO way would a pregnant belly be able to navigate the 5 inches I have to squeeze thru) So on this morning I asked Number 1 to pull the car out while I was finishing getting the littler ones ready.

I came out side to find him out of the car, looking at it, since it was FREEZING out ( have I mentioned i abhor cold weather?) I asked him what was going on. He had no words, he pointed to the edge of the car and to the garage and to the edge of the car and to the garage. I walked around the car to find white paint in a 14 inch area on the car and a fairly good sized dent. A also saw a man/child who needed to get on the bus in two minutes and was close to loosing it. I quickly hugged him, told him it would be alright and got him in the car to get to the bus. He takes things pretty seriously so I tried to make light of it by saying "Everyone gets into an accident, perhaps that will be yours" and "You can actually stop if you think you are hitting something, you don't have to keep moving"  I wanted him to be ok and settled by the time he got to school. I did not think about the backlash.

The next time it was brought up, you know by his brother's to torment him, his response was : "What kind of a mother asks her 15 year old son to back out the the garage when the car is on a slant?" I was stunned. Have I gone so far to keep things calm around here & solution focused that he has no sense of personal responsibility? Or is taking that responsibility too much for him wholly right now?

I had him do what he could, after several friends suggested some magic white sponge that erases all kinds of stuff, ( Thank you again red tent) he spent 20 minutes getting all the paint off the car. He wasn't happy about it. My hope is he felt like he could have a positive impact on repairing something. Even by a cup of water and a sponge. It looks ok now, you'd have to look to see the impact.
Isn't that the truth with most of us? We look ok on the surface, & you really have to look to see the bumps and cracks :-).

So we "survived" his first accident, just like we survived his first B, his first hurts, stitches, surgery. We will go on, facing these risks, milestones and rights of passage. Surviving each in turn, but not without bumps and scratches