My two teenage boys both drive and they share the same car. This is a major pushing point in this house as they have to schedule a plan to share. This is impossible

In my day, there was no car when you earned your licence. You begged and pleaded with your parents daily to see if they would let you drive the car. The idea of taking the car to school was a non-starter and you were lucky to cruise the streets on a Friday night in your family mini van. God forbid you had another sibling also driving as you might never feel the fine Corinthian velvet of your dad’s car.

In today’s world, kids want a car, now. Although there is a vast after-market of used beaters rolling around the city, it’s the cost of the operation of the vehicle that sinks most kids (and therefore their parents) before they get off the driveway. Teens have no perspective of the cost of running these beaters across the city, let alone the safety of doing so. My boys are learning the hard way.

My kids were lucky to have a car left for them from my divorce. We never planned on them both driving at the same time, let alone the same vehicle. I forced my oldest son to get his own insurance set up before he was 18. This left me exempt from his rash of speeding and parking tickets in those early days and my second oldest is headed for the same expensive fate. Now we are trying to manage the “division” of the vehicle by selling it and dividing the proceeds into 2 beaters. When I wanted a car as a youth, I was completely on my own to source the car, pay for it and make it run. Today the internet has streamlined this process and makes the dream of that 15 year old sports car, a reality. The chess game of selling one car to buy two is yet to come but will be the next evolution of their driving life.

Stay tuned for the continuation of the saga.