[TR] cars for kids

[Mark Steph]

My personal theory for kid cars (from a guy that doesn't have kids and
has <ahem> made it such that it won't happen -- so take with a grain of
salt.)

I've watched nieces (4 of them) get cars given to them and watched how
they fared.  And averaged this with how I manged myself as a teen.  My
theory is:
a) kid buys their own car - with some sort of matching program from the
parent.  Something like "I'll match you 1:1 up to $X.  Anything beyond
that is your cost."
b) (and this is very important in my eyes.)  - you buy the car when they
are too young to drive it -- say 14.  And you buy one that almost, but
doesnt quite work.  Then you and the kid have a project that you tackle
together.  This is both "daddy time" and it gives kid a sense of pride
and ownership (in theory).  I think this is especially important for
girls -- to get a very basic car understanding.  It both makes them
"cool" and it makes them something other than helpless when something
happens.

The goal here is to make them adults -- and not to give them a sense of
entitlement.  And you just might be less likely to do stupid things if
you had sweat and blood in the car.  (I said less likely, not unlikely.)
-- 

http://SporkInTheEye.blogspot.com
--
Time and motion
Flesh and blood and fire
Lives connect in webs of gold and razor wire
Spin a thread of precious contact
Squeeze in all that you can find
Spontaneous relations
And the long enduring kind
        Neil Peart, "Time and Motion", Test For Echo (1996)