Apr 7, 2010
Picture this: Your teen, a licensed driver for several months, receives a ticket from a police officer for violating some provision of your state’s teen driver laws – speeding, illegal passengers, on the road after curfew, violating cell phone restrictions,... read more
Mar 27, 2010
This blog’s focus is safer teen driving, but let me digress to a larger issue about safe driving in general. I research topics for posts on this blog primarily by reading everything remotely relevant that I can find. Most recently, I have followed... read more
Mar 23, 2010
Businesses, governments, and schools have long understood that one way to boost achievement and promote compliance is to shine a spotlight, to publicize lists of who qualifies for a status, who has followed the rules or who has not. Businesses post the names of... read more
Mar 2, 2010
Every summer, most high schools in the U.S. send forms to parents and guardians that ask for permission for various activities at school. The forms usually include something like this: _____ _____ I give permission for my child to drive to ... read more
Feb 15, 2010
Dear Readers: After five months of blogging, I have provided you here with a great deal to read about cars, teens, accidents, and safe driving. As an alternative to your plowing through these articles, now on this blog is a video of a presentation that I made to a... read more
Feb 3, 2010
I am not an adolescent psychologist, but I don’t think I’m risking my credibility by observing that, in general, teenagers often operate in their own little world, focusing on themselves and how they fit in with their peers, regarding themselves as immune... read more
Jan 29, 2010
Attached as promised, as a PDF, is a sample, filled-out version of a new national model for a teen driver contract. I recruited a teenager I know to be the “Teen Driver” (initials “TD”) and a mother I know (really well, in fact) to be the... read more
Dec 22, 2009
Revision: January 6, 2010 NOTES: For background, see Parts 1 and 2, posted on this blog. Reader feedback and suggestions for improvements strongly encouraged! (tim@fromreidsdad.org). Model contract attached as a Word document, which may be downloaded and... read more
Dec 14, 2009
First, let me reiterate that by encouraging the use of TDC, by no means am I retreating from the basic message of this blog: There Is No Such Thing As A Safe Teen Driver. Signing a TDC should never distract a parent from the essential question of whether a teen is... read more
Dec 1, 2009
This post begins a multi-part series on teen driving contracts. Part 1 introduces the subject, surveys the Internet resources, and explains why, after conducting this research, I am suggesting an improvement to the versions currently available. Part 2 will be... read more
