Another milestone

There are so many milestones parents cherish in a child's life but the milestone I had with Brittanie yesterday was one I could live without. I took Brittanie to her first court appearance. A couple of weeks ago she got a speeding ticket in Swansea. Randy got one there last month and I told her then that she better NOT get one because it is a matter of public record that the town of Swansea is over $300K in the red and their police force will be trying to help them recover. Obviously my lecture fell on deaf ears. She was stopped doing 79 in a 60. Tom wanted to sell her car but I managed to talk him out of it. Brittanie, being the drama queen she can be at times, told us to sell it because "obviously she is too stupid to drive." One of her thoughts was that if she got rid of the car she would no longer have to work. My response? "Who told you that? I firmly believe that all teenagers should work, whether they have a car or not." I got a job with the JTPA in Louisiana when I was 12 and have been working ever since. So whether she drives herself or I drive her and she pays me for gas money to take her to work, she WILL work. I also told her that we aren't buying her another car ever in the future. We bought her a car and that's the only one we are buying....period. So unless she wants to hitchhike to college, she better take care of this car.

So she got over that drama, which was an obvious ploy for sympathy. But anyway, I went to court with her yesterday afternoon. The officer, when he gave her the ticket, told her if she went to court, he would reduce the fine and points. Well he didn't. So she had to pay all $180 of her speeding ticket but he did, thankfully, drop the points. She was devastated. Teenagers live in the moment. She doesn't care that dropping the points was the best deal because will save alot more in the long run. She just knows that most of her money is gone. In my opinion, that was the best thing that could have happened. Now she will make sure she doesn't speed because she knows it will take all of her money if she does. She will have to work 33 hours to recover the money she paid for that ticket. Lesson learned!