Teen driving: Did I do the right thing?

As I approached Wallingford’s Pat Wall Field from the south Wednesday night around 8:30 p.m., it was a mob of cars and people. The crowd at the Lyman Hall-East Haven baseball game was larger than normal because it was Senior Night. Cars were parked in the lot and along South Elm Street. The bus taking the East Haven kids home was having difficulty maneuvering out of a sea of people in the lot and a line of cars trying to exit but having trouble because their view of oncoming traffic was blocked by the cars parking on the street. (Officially there is no parking allowed on that portion of South Elm because the road is too narrow.)

As I got closer and put on my turn signal, I had trouble figuring out where the entrance was because of all the people, parked and crawling cars. Finally I saw it and realized the car trying to exit was stuck because the driver couldn’t see if was safe to pull out. As I stopped to let her out, the car behind me slammed on its brakes to avoid rear-ending me and a car coming the other way I had to swerve to avoid hitting my front end. When I did make it into the lot, people were walking all around my car and I had to stop several times to make sure I didn’t clip anyone.

My oldest son Michael finally emerged from the crowd. He walked over to the driver side and gave me the signal to move over so that he could drive. He got his permit a month ago and now assumes he will drive anytime he wants. I had let him drive to Pat Wall four hours earlier. But on the heels of the near accident and with a packed parking lot, I told him to get in on the passenger side. He glared and then complied. When he got in the car he accused me of not trusting him to drive and said he needed to learn how to handle difficult situations. I balked again and drove out of Pat Wall with an angry teen in the passenger seat. I stopped about a quarter mile later and offered to let him drive the rest of the way. He was too mad to take me up on the offer and again said that I didn’t trust him and wasn’t helping him by avoiding difficult driving situations. It is not the first time I’ve refused a request to let him get behind the wheel. I’m still uncomfortable with some night and highway driving. I think part of the problem is that my wife and I have slightly different standards when it comes to safe conditions for a new driver. So his mom is letting him drive a little more often than I and it seems I’ve become the bad guy in this situation. Maybe it is deserved.

What do you think?