The Civic's odometer said 150,412 last Sunday afternoon when I wrote it in the notebook. That's about 8,400 miles since we bought it in December, and most of those are his. I've been writing that number down on the last Sunday of every month since he got his license on January 29. Eight months now.
After eight months, some of what we watched closely in February doesn't need watching anymore. Some of it still does. Here's where we've landed.
What we still check every month
Miles. The odometer reading on the first Sunday, plus a rough idea of where they went. Since school started he's been driving Lainey most mornings, so his monthly miles went up to about 900 and the van's went down by about 180. Miles aren't really about him. They're about the car. That's how I know when the next oil change is due, when the tires get rotated and when something is wearing faster than it should. It's also how we caught the rear brakes and the sway bar links in September, $447 between the parts we did ourselves and the links the shop did. A 2012 with that many miles will keep finding things to tell you about.
Gas money. Since he started at the grocery store in June, he pays for his own gas. The deal is: we cover insurance, he covers gas and half of anything that's his doing. At about 32 mpg and gas around $2.95, 900 miles a month is roughly 28 gallons and $83. He fills it himself and writes the receipt total in his phone. Once a month he reads me the total and I write it into the family spreadsheet, where it sits right below the Silverado, which burns about twice as much gas per mile. He thinks this is very funny.
The app score. We've had the insurer's driving-score app on his phone since February. It earned us $131 off the May renewal, which he knows about, because I told him. Back then it flagged hard braking a few times and two phone pick-ups while the car was moving. The phone pick-ups were the conversation. He said one was moving the phone off the seat so it wouldn't slide. Fair enough. Since then, his score has been steady and the flags are rare. I look at it once a month with him, not every day without him. Checking it daily felt like reading his diary.
The phone rule. Phone in the console, lid shut, directions set before the car moves. This one doesn't loosen. It's the one rule we'll keep after he's 18, if I have anything to say about it, and I've told him I follow it in the truck too. Mostly.
What we stopped checking, and why
- The arrival text for routine trips. School, work, Hy-Vee, a friend's house he goes to every week. We dropped it for those in August. He still texts for anything after dark, anything new, anything with the highway, and anything over half an hour.
- The nightly odometer glance. In February I'd look at the Civic's mileage every evening, which in hindsight was more about me than him. Monthly tells me everything I need.
- Riding along on new routes first. For the first few months, before he drove somewhere new alone, one of us went once with him. He's driven to Savannah to see my dad, to Kansas City with us in the car, and all over town. That one has served its purpose.
- The $640 balance. He paid his half of the parking-lot scrape at $50 a week and finished in August. The little table in the spreadsheet is gone. He asked if he could delete it himself. I let him.
What's left to work on
Not much on the driving itself. He's smooth, he's patient, he checks twice before backing up now. If I had to pick one thing, it's the same thing I'd pick for most drivers: following distance at highway speed. He leaves a decent gap; I'd like a slightly bigger one. It's also deer season again starting this month, so dusk drives on the country roads get a reminder.
The bigger shift is that I'm not watching his driving as much as I'm watching his car, the way I watch the truck and the van. That feels like the right place to be at eight months.
Passenger limit is still two, by our rules, with three allowed by the state. We'll look at it again at Christmas. He's already reminded me.