Adding Character

Several years ago when William was learning to drive, he backed into a lamppost late one night on our way to DC for Thanksgiving. I was not very happy with him to say the least. He just calmly said, 'Mom, I was just adding character to your van' 

Hmmmm. Yea. I could do without that. 

Thankfully, my father-in-law was able to show the boy how to get the mark of black paint off my van. And somehow, I survived him and Melissa learning to drive. 

And now it's Benjamin's turn. For the first few months I just refused to ride with him. My nerves just couldn't handle it. So, Drew took over the teaching. As with the others he is getting better every time he drives. 

Yesterday Benjamin and I had several errands to do to prepare for school starting on Monday. I knew he had not driven in well over a week, so I made him my chauffeur. 

Overall, he did well. I did make him let me drive at one point because he needed to back out of a tight spot at a strip mall. With a large truck on one side and an SUV on the other and not a lot of room behind us, I just didn't trust him to back out without hitting something. 

I think it hurt his feelings....oh. Well. Better than hurting another car!

Then we headed home. And he drove into our garage. And was looking at the wrong corner of the car. I yelled, "You're gonna hit the house! STOP!"

Too late. 

  But today he learned how to sand and repaint wood. And those marks on the front of the van? Not paint like his brother added. On, no. Not that easy. That's the metal under the paint. We'll be painting that soon as well. 

I guess now we're adding character to Benjamin.