We've all been one or got one in the house, right?

I have two at the moment, my 19 year old son -- who is away at college and sans car -- and my 18 year old daughter, who's working on her driver's permit.

Personally, I didn't think she'd ever want to drive, or she'd end up like me and not learn until she was in her early 20s. She seemed totally unmotivated about the whole thing. She didn't get her 30 hours classroom certificate because she missed 3 or 4 days during that marking period and the teacher refused to issue it. She didn't try to make up the hours or to retake the class. That was in 2005.

After she graduated in 2006, she procrastinated about contacting any driving school. This was even after she bought her own car, a used station wagon from her step grandmother. I guess she finally felt embarrassed into doing it and finished up 6 hours behind the wheel a couple of weeks ago. Her test is scheduled for the end of March and I've been having her drive my car for practice.

All of a sudden she developed fahrvergnügen...remember that word from the old Volkswagen commercials? It means something like the joy of driving. She wanted to drive everywhere and I am getting gray hair all over my head. She's not a bad driver, just inexperienced.

Today we both made a dumb mistake. She drove her younger sister and me around town on some errands. We were in a strip mall, center of the lot, and I needed to pick up my husband's prescription. I elected to walk. Younger daughter wanted to wait in the car which was fine. The new driver goes, "hey, how about if I pick you up as you come out?"

And without thinking, I said yes. I go inside, pick up the prescription and head out. I see my younger daughter running across the lot toward me and it hit me like a ton of bricks: new driver is not supposed to use the car without the presence of a licensed driver, 21 or older. Ohhhhhhhh my God......

Yes, my newly driving daughter scraped a truck as she was trying to back out. There was a eensy weensy little scratch on the bottom bumper of this gigantic truck; my car was missing its headlight. My daughter was totally freaking out. "Maybe I shouldn't drive at all!"

I calmed her down. I told her it was my fault too, I should have remembered she wasn't supposed to drive without me being there. I told her I'd had minor dings in parking lots before. I reminded her how many times I go over the curb.

We couldn't find te owner of the truck so I left a note. It was such a negligible scratch I might have just driven off but didn't want to give that kind of message to the girls. My daughter is sure that the truck driver is going to run right out and cause more damage to the vehicle just so he can rip us off. I told her not all people are dishonest like that. At least, I'm hoping not.