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This 1 critical piece of advice from my dad literally saved my life
My eldest son is approaching driving age, which is a lowkey terrifying thought.
It’s not that I don’t trust him.
He’s an incredibly smart kid who stays out of trouble and makes good decisions for the most part.
While driving opens up a whole new world for kids, it also opens up a whole new world of risks.
Drinking and driving. Speed. The misplaced sense of invincibility that comes with youth.
Yet I’m less worried about him than I am about other people. Here’s the thing: if you have a modicum of common sense, the greatest risk on the road doesn’t usually come from your own choices.
It comes from the poor decisions of others.
The day I almost died
So there I was, returning home after dropping my sister, her husband, and her son off at the airport after she’d come to pay us a visit. We both had young families at the time — her son was about 6–7 months old, mine was a newborn.
It’s a weird time as a human actually, early-early parenthood.
I remember strapping my son into his car seat for the first time when we left the hospital and feeling like everything was out to kill us.