I recently got an email from a mother whose daughter is already driving and who came home after a night spent out with a vehicle that "smelled like a brewery." The parents went to the Internet and found this website. They were kind enough to write and tell me that they planned to put the contract in place with their daughter.
Good idea. It reminded me of something I haven't addressed much on the website. What if a parent wants to initiate a parent-teen driving contract AFTER a teenager has already started driving.
My advice is, of course, do it. Probably, in the vast majority of cases, parents are most likely to do this after some incident has already happened. In that case, there should be no unusual problems in justifying the contract. "Junior," you say, "you have screwed up royally. We're glad you're alive and nobody got hurt. But, we've learned a lesson. You're not going to drive again. (Pause a few beats) Until we enter into a contract."
I've also told parent that while I know it isn't easy, you can also start a contract with a teenager who is already driving independently even in the absence of a serious incident. Here's the script for that: "Hey, Junior. Got some news for you you're not going to like. We've been reading about the accident rate among drivers your age and we have learned about contracts between parents and teenagers that are designed to encourage safe driving. We're going to do that. Sorry we're doing it now instead of before you started driving. But, we're going to do it and, you know, better late than never. You don't have to like it. But, we're going to do it."
A teenager is unlikely to take this well. You just have to ride that out. What, as we keep asking, is at stake?