you want to do WHAT?!?

So here's a little background on my personality-- how do I say it delicately? I AM A NEUROTIC MESS. There, that wasn't so hard was it? Being a pediatric nurse hasn't helped that situation at all- I worry about everything. I am a bona-fide worrier. My poor children have been the lucky recipients of all that worrying, much to their dismay. When they were young they were the only kids on the block wearing suits of armor while learning to ride bikes at the tender age of twelve. Just kidding, but only a little bit. They really were the only kids who had to wear their helmets even if they were just sitting on said bike in the garage. I mean, come on, that concrete floor is hard.

DD#1 who is now grown and living on her own (just major new fodder for my highly developed worrying skills) has never been on a trampoline. Unless she has one in her apartment that she keeps hidden from me. I think the Princess, who still lives at home, cheated once, and got on one at her cousin's house. It was my evil sister's plot to throw me over the edge into insanity. Somehow, I survived.

Anyhoo, to get to today's story... The Princess is 16. She will be 17 in October. Most of her friends are already driving because in this state you can get your learner's permit at age 15. (Are they smoking crack? Who do they think they are, letting babies drive?) Up until just last week, the Princess didn't even have her learner's. Now she does. (I must be getting soft in my old age) In her defense she is a straight A student and a very good child. (And just because that shiny new permit sits in her wallet doesn't mean she has to use it, right?)

Here is our conversation yesterday:

P: Can we go driving?
Me: Where do you need to go?
P: Nowhere, I just want to drive.
Me: Honey gas costs too much for me to just drive you around. Can't you find something else to do? Go read a book.
P: No, Mom, I want to drive.
Me: Honey, didn't you hear me, gas is expensive.
P: MOM, Are you deliberately being DENSE?? I want to drive the car.
Me: Oh... you want to do WHAT?

God help us, I took the child who has never been behind the wheel of a car driving. In a parking lot. It was truly an experience. I am now totally gray.