“Mom, Dad, Amy’s bleeding and I crashed the car”. My husband and I were awakened from a dead sleep. We had no idea that our son was not home. He had a curfew and obviously, he broke it because he and his friend were on a ‘sojourn’ to say goodbye to all their friends before leaving to go to university. This was not the plan.
I asked him if he called Amy’s mom, my friend of over 50 years at the time. Amy and Alan were born days apart. My son said he couldn’t bring himself to do this and left the ‘dirty work’ to me. Interestingly, the accident happened close to home (don’t many accidents happen this way?) and wouldn’t you know, the car landed in a massive ditch and when my husband and I went to find our son and Amy, we couldn’t find the car, much less Amy or our son. Nor could the police or the ambulance.
We were fortunate. Neither child was injured seriously, though both took a trip to the emergency room. In addition to this, there was a special police officer who was an ‘observer’. He observed both to see if this was a drug and alcohol related accident. It was not. The car was totaled. Our son lost his glasses, injured his arm and by the time we got home, there were two hours of sleep to be had before we needed to leave for the airport for university drop off. It was not the greatest way to launch the college send off.
There is definitely more to this story, like how Amy got her belongings out of the car once the car was impounded, the ticket our son received and how he had to go to court and the implications of the ticket and facing the judge, the cost of the attorney and the list goes on.
So, what’s the moral of this story? If I had to do this over again, I would keep my child home the night before (maybe for two nights) leaving for college. There is a lot to be accomplished from packing and sorting and maybe some chatting, which could be profound and important.
Keep your kids home and with you and safe for as long as you can because at some point, they leave the roost.