Replies to '09/10 Season 6 Premiere!'

I just read through 5 pages of  (very good) opinions until I finally found this one saying pretty much what I've been thinking. I have to wonder why the parent's are letting little darlin' keep either. After the first moving violation she should have lost her independent driving privileges until she can prove that she's mature enough to handle the responsibility. As to the cell phone, I seriously doubt that the car is the only place she's texting - I would hazard a guess that there are more than a few teachers who think it should go away.

As a single parent I understand the convenience of both of these PRIVILEGES (not rights). It's easier and more reliable to get a message to school-aged children via cell phone than it is going through the school office and hoping that the message actually gets to the child sometime that week. But the minute that child starts abusing that convenience and thereby not paying attention to what's going on in class it should get confiscated - if not by the teacher then surely by the parent.

I also understand that it's more convenient to parents to let their kids drive themselves to whatever activity, but again, if they so blatently disregard common sense and the rules of the road, they're obviously not ready to be out on their own! No, I don't think letting them loose on the world at 18 is the answer - parents need those two crucial years to teach their kids how to be responsible drivers. But so what if mom and/or dad have to go back to playing chauffer? Nobody said it would be easy and this is just one of the inconveniences we have to go through. I'd rather have to deal with a petulant, angry and ill child than to have to visit them in prison serving time for vehicular manslaughter or in the cemetery! I originally said visiting them in the cemetary would be worse, but I think both would be equally unbearable.