Saturday, April 25, 2009

driving license


"Oh, so that's how you turn it," Jarrett said, as I made a left-hand turn on the drive to school yesterday. I didn't realize he'd been watching my hands on the steering wheel. I gave him a little lesson about "ten and two" and how to use the turn signal.

"I can't wait until I can get my driving license. How old will I be?"

I let him know that he had a good ten years before that would happen. He didn't seem daunted at all, more like he was willing to wait for something so good.

"How old will Kris be when I'm sixteen?"

"Kris will be fourteen. Danny will be twelve and Cate will be ten." As I said those words I tried to picture what the little kids in the car seats behind me would look like in a decade. I can't even imagine.

"When I have my driving license I can drive Danny and Cate to school. Then you can have your job and you won't have to worry about them." I'm not sure what job he's talking about. I've never mentioned anything like that to him before. I thought it was very sweet of him to want to help with my kids though.

I guessed that he hadn't quite realized that his schooling would continue well past first grade. I filled him in on the fact that he'd be going to school every morning until he was a little bit past his eighteenth birthday.

He sat quietly and thought about that for a few seconds.

"Then I can drive them to school when I'm grown up like you." I had to chuckle. In thirty years, when Jarrett is a grown up like me, Danny will be thrity-two and Cate will be thirty.

I am seriously hoping they won't still need rides to school. They'll have their own driving licenses. I told Jarrett that they wouldn't need help by then but that he could maybe help drive Cate's kids to school.

He looked out the window and said with a smile, "Cool."

2 comments:

Cathy said...

Dan asked me if Jarrett really said cool. He did. I have never heard him say that before. Maybe it's the influence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie he's been watching over here for the past few days.

Unknown said...

That is funny. How thoughtful of Jarrett. He's deep.