An Official Driver's License!

Today I took Helena down to the Driver's License Division of the Dept. of Public Safety (the government likes capital letters, apparently) so she could take her field test for her driver's license.  But let me back up a moment and give you the full story...

Helena got her learner's permit just a few days after she turned 15 back in the fall 2008.  She had TONS of driving practice, took driver's ed over the summer of '09, and was ready to get her license when she turned 16 last November. 

I should say, ALMOST ready.  There was one stumbling block....

Her grades.

We told her that we wouldn't let her get her license until she managed to get her grades to the point that we could get the good student discount on the insurance.  We waited all year for her to fix the problem, but we waited in vain.

Last winter I realized that her permit had actually expired at the year mark back in November of '09!  Great.  Now she couldn't even get in the extra practice!  Ugh.  I decided it would be a good thing to worry about over summer vacation, when we had the time to deal with it.

So.  Here we are.  Summer vacation is 2/3 over and things have finally calmed down to a degree that I can focus on this predicament.

Last Monday I took her down to reinstate her permit.  It had been so long (over 1 1/2 years) since she got her last one that they made her retake the written test.  That was cake, though, so we left there with her permit... and an appointment for her driving field test.

Today she breezed through the field test with just a few minor comments from the test official ('don't place your hand INSIDE the steering wheel when turning', uh... OK.) and walked away with a temporary paper license until the plastic one is mailed to her.  Oh, and she looks totally STONED in her photo.  Hee, hee, hee!  Gotta love government photos!

Incidentally, I HATE the bureaucracy of that place!!!  Stand in line # one so you can tell the FIRST government official what you are doing there, show him you have the correct documentation (or be told to come back when you have it), and get a number to sit and wait for the SECOND bureaucrat to take your money and scan your documents.  Then he sends you to wait for the THIRD official to stamp and seal your documents and process it all OFFICIALLY.  He then sends you to wait for the FOURTH guy who is actually the field test administrator with the power to grant or deny your attempt at a successful license!

I can't tell you how grateful I am that I managed to get my license renewed online right before they cancelled that option!  Now ALL renewals must be done in person with proper paperwork to prevent id theft.  I won't have to deal with that until 2014.

Now, you might be wondering why we are even letting her get her license since she hasn't gotten the prerequisite grades, yet.  Here's the deal;

I want her to be driving for lots of different reasons.  The most obvious is to make my life easier.  Now she can drive herself to school and has even volunteered to pick Will up after school, making my schedule super nice.  Also, I will no longer have to shuttle her to her friends' houses.  She is a popular girl and does more with her friend than I ever did as a teen.  But there are other reasons.

I want her to have lots of experience driving now while her driving options are still under my control.  I will feel better sending her off on college adventures if I know that she has this driving thing completely handled.  It will also give me more of a chance to give her progressively harder 'find this address' challenges to broaden her world.  And, if she is driving, that also means she can get herself to and from a job, should that opportunity present itself!

What about the grades, you ask?

Simple.

We will pay her insurance no matter what.  However, if she doesn't get the good student discount, she will have to pay us the difference in insurance costs each month.  It is a $13 difference.  That is not insurmountable for her and seems equitable to everyone.  After all, I shouldn't have to pay for her bad grades, right?  RIGHT!

Oh.  And Will is steamed because we found out that the difference between good grades and bad grades for BOYS is $42!!!  He will be completely hosed if he doesn't pull the grades!  But, he's got about 2 years of advanced warning so he can build the good grade habit.