Even though it is annoying getting in and out of the van, I do not mind car time with kids. I learn a lot while I am with them, especially if they have friends along as they are well behaved and their friends tell me lots of stuff they don't want me to know. :-)
My flexible schedule allows me to come in and out and many kids' parents don't have that kind of flexibility. So, for the next couple weeks I have agreed to give rides to a couple high school girls whose parents work so that they can get to sports practice and Driver's Ed. As I told one of them yesterday (who is very girl and very unlikely to be doing anything wrong, so the joke was funny) "A busy teenage girl is seldom a pregnant teenage girl". I want to support any organized activity that iwll fill the time of teens so that they don't have time for unorganized activities which often lead to addiction or pregnancy.
So, in addition to providing rides for our six who can't drive and our three "grandkids" I will be doing those two things as well.
It's a busy week for me at one of my jobs, so we're going to have an interesting time juggling all this, but I feel like this is a conribution I can make. I do not enjoy large groups of teenagers that are not my own... I'm way too annoyed and way too controlling. But I can do "youth ministry" and help out parents by giving one or two kids a ride at a time and taking advantage of those moments.
And that's pretty much what it takes. If we can each do our little part, kids lives can head in a good direction.
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