When Jeff and I met, his children were almost 9, 7, and 2. Over the last 7 years, I have been a part of their lives, watching them grow up and mature and become the awesome kids they are today.
When his son Timmy was 12, he came to live with us, while Jeff's two girls remained with their mom.
Timmy is 16 now, and a great kid. He loves his sister's unconditionally. He is amazing with Callie, the baby. He is the first to help out anyone that needs it. He is very involved with our church's youth group, in honor's classes at school, and just an all around great kid.
But, he's 16. And like any teen, are bound to make some not so great decisions.
Last week, as I was putting laundry in his room, there was a cell phone on his bean bag, but it wasn't his cell phone. Well, I picked it up trying to figure out where it came from, and who's it was. When I opened it, there was a picture of a friend, pictures of Callie, and some videos. One video caught my attention.
It was a 2 1/2 minute long video of him and two of his friends on a wet dirt road doing donuts and "e-braking" aka emergency breaking.
They were having the time of their lives. Or so they thought.
The kid driving was driving his dad's jeep. This is also the same kid, who only weeks later, TOTALED this same vehicle by running off the lime rock road he was on, hitting a tree, the jeep bursting into flames and him having to climb out of the vehicle through the window. He had no idea where he was, or how to tell 911 where he was. They had to locate him through his cell phone.
Thankfully, he escaped with bumps and bruises, a broken nose, and a broken arm.
But there is always the "what if".
My thoughts though, after finding this video, and realizing who was in the vehicle, and who was driving, made me want to throw up. What if it had been all three of these kids in the jeep at the time it ran off the road? Or, what if the jeep would have rolled over when they were doing donuts and "e-braking"?
I don't even want to think about it.
Stupid, stupid decisions for three kids that have barely any driving time under their belt.
I don't snoop through any of my kids things, normally. I would if I had a reason...like if I suspected something was going on that shouldn't be, because I believe they are entitled to some sort of privacy.
However, this time, I'm glad that my curiosity got the best of me.
After he was confronted with the video, he denied it. He denied it vehemently.
He denied it because he knew there were no faces shown in the video. Only shoes were visible sometimes, but mostly it was shot's of the road. Oh, and you could hear who was talking.
I knew it was Timmy's shoes that were in the video.
The phone disappeared after Jeff confronted him about it. Jeff called the friends that were on the video. The driver said he didn't know what he was talking about. The other passenger said it was him, the driver, and another kid, but not Timmy. This went on and on for almost a week.
The phone re-appeared yesterday.
With no video's or picture's on it.
Now, like most parent's we didn't fall off the turnip truck, and may have been born at night, but not last night.
After some talking, and some hollering, and some breaking down, he finally admitted it was him, the driver and the friend. He said he was scared that he would have been in worse trouble had he shown the video, instead of it never to be seen again.
Sadly, he was wrong. We explained to him that had he just said "yes, we screwed up" or "yes, it was me", this would have been done last week, had some punishment handed down, and we could have moved on. Now, the consequences are much worse.
Never in a million years did I think that Timmy would do something like this.
Never in a million years will I again think that any of my children won't be in this situation, and I will doing everything in my power to prevent it.
If you are the parent of a teen driver, please don't be as naive as we were. Your kids can be and will be put in situations you just know they won't be in.
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