Back in the days when all three of my children were still living under my roof, there were days when I worried -a whole lot -about how on earth I would ever be able to provide for their basic needs of keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table much less being able to help them with other aspects of the realities (economics) of life.
One thing that was a royal headache for me, as they got older and wanted to drive, was coping with the costs involved with that luxury.
As a result, I had a house rule that none of my kids would be permitted to drive unless they had a job (part-time, of course, while still in school) and that they had their OWN vehicle and paid their fair share of the requirements of car ownership.
We didn't go shopping for car insurance companies then though as I allowed them the luxury of simply adding their vehicle to my own auto insurance plan.
That actually worked fairly well too and the two older kids both took advantage of that "deal" until they moved out and on their own.
However, with my son, prior to his leaving for the military, he was driving at that time this old big boat of a car that a friend of ours had sold to him for the grand price of $100. A bargain, huh?
If memory serves me, I think this buggy was a big old boat of a Mercury and had at one time -when it was new -probably the creme de la creme of the Mercury line too. (I can't for the life of me remember now what the name of that particular vehicle was.) All I really recall about that car was that it was huge and the color was a yellow shade -not a bright yellow, but more of a pale lemony yellow color but we all referred to it as "The Banana Boat" cause it was so darned big.
Now my son back then was also, because of his age and his driving record (which was not squeaky clean) subjected to the price differentiations of car insurance for teenage girls vs. teen age boys and as a result of that, when he left home, his car insurance at that time, for that el-cheapo junker car was running him $100 a MONTH. So he was paying then, as you can see, $1,200 a year for liability insurance only on an old, old vehicle that had cost him a mere $100 to own!
Not that I didn't understand the reasoning behind the insurance companies for charging him that much to keep that car legal and on the road, because I did and I still do understand their logic. It was just that at that point in time, his sisters and I all thought it was really rather comical to think that in order to be able to drive that huge old clunker, it cost him every month, the same amount as he had paid for it in the first place to keep it on the road.
Brings to mind another adage most of us learn in our lifetime: "You reap what you sow."
And that message sure did come through loud and clear back then I think! Just some memories that provide a bit of food for thought you know.
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