Every dad's duty

Rilot

Rilot

Rilot

Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
23,586
Location
Wargrave, UK
While we were out at Longleat yesterday, driving on the private roads around the estate, I let my 6-year-old girl sit on my knee and steer while I did the pedals and gears. She loved it and now keeps asking me when she can drive my car again.
This was the norm when I was a kid. Sitting on dad's knee and driving the car was a right of passage for every child. These days though it seems to be unusual and in fact when I told some friends of mine, they were taken aback as if I'd done something very irresponsible.

So, did you guys drive like that with your dads? What car did you drive?

For me, it was a 1975 Rover P6 3500S which I drove on Braunton Burrows while my dad did the pedals. I recall nearly running my mother over.
 
i've done it with mine in an empty carpark and my dad did it with me.

Our 7 year old has had alcohol as well. I always had alcohol in the house as a teenager as it was never a taboo or forbidden - probably half the reason i never went out on massive benders as a student. I went out drinking with friends, but saw little point in getting so drunk you couldnt remember the good nights.
 
We did it with my dad a couple of times, he had a Vectra SRi (V6 in white) at the time, we thought it was the best car in the whole world!! :D
 
MrLOL said:
Our 7 year old has had alcohol as well. I always had alcohol in the house as a teenager as it was never a taboo or forbidden - probably half the reason i never went out on massive benders as a student. I went out drinking with friends, but saw little point in getting so drunk you couldnt remember the good nights.
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I was like this, was always aloud a sip or small glass now & again. Rarely ever went out and got "hammered" during my teens, or even now still!
 
Yup, used to do the indicators for dad from about 7 years old, he let me change gear if it was quiet too. At 12 I was driving his car on private roads tracks etc.
 
Phil W said:
I was like this, was always aloud a sip or small glass now & again. Rarely ever went out and got "hammered" during my teens, or even now still!
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look at the european countries that dont have binge drinking problems with teenagers like france and spain and then look at their alchohol laws.

France for example has no minimum age for consumption, only for purchase. As a result its perfectly legal to give children water down table wine with dinner. They grow up respecting alcohol and with no desire to go out every weekend and get so wasted that the police need to arrest them because they cant remember their own name.

But again, just like driving, giving alcohol to the young is frowned upon. Campaigners want to axe drinks like WKD and smirnoff ice because they appeal to teenagers. I say let em appeal to kids, better they be drinking WKD than having free shots thrust upon them all night as happens in most town centres on a weekend.
 
When i was a kid (about 12 - 14) i used to clean my dads mates lotus elise ... And in return i would get a tenner and also a ride home in it ... I remember once we went to a local industrial estate and he let me drive it and i think i was grinning for weeks after :p
 
MrLOL said:
France for example has no minimum age for consumption, only for purchase. As a result its perfectly legal to give children water down table wine with dinner. They grow up respecting alcohol and with no desire to go out every weekend and get so wasted that the police need to arrest them because they cant remember their own name.
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I thought it was the same here? Under 18s can drink alcohol as long as it's under the supervision of a parent/guardian?
 
My mum and dad were Land Rover enthusiasts and we owned a 1954 86" Series One. I used to 'drive' it on Brean Beach, first on my dad's lap just steering the wheel, then when I was big enough to reach the pedals my Dad actually taught me how to drive for real. It felt awesome to be driving a Landy completely under my control at the age of 12 :cool:

My kids have all had a go at driving the Estima, my eldest two actually driving it completely under their control, but being an Auto they don't have to worry about the gears :D
 
"As a result its perfectly legal to give children water down table wine with dinner."

I'm pretty sure it's perfectly legal to do the same here. I might be wrong but I was under the impression that was just fine legally, it just doesn't tend to happen much. More of a culture thing than a legal one, I don't think Brits tend to drink alcohol with meals as much as the French do anyway, seems to be something we reserve more for special meals out and such like.
 
PMKeates said:
I don't see the problem with this particularly part of our rules? I can't see how the French allowing drinking unsupervised would make much of a difference.
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its not so much the rules

its a completely different attitude towards alchohol. Its frowned upon here, but to my mind thats one of the things fuelling the binge drinking culture that in decades to come, will no doubt define this decade, just as raves and the like defined the 90s.
 
used to park our Citroen BX in the garage when i was about 10, got to drive dads vectra GSI around a field and car park when about 15. Also used to change gears for my dad in his Cavalier SRI when he was talking on his massive mobile phone in the early 90's
 
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