Edit: My father is a little disappointed or maybe sad that I don’t drive. My mother too
I have a license and access to a car. I’m in America so I sort of have to.
I drive, my parents and peers pressured me a lot and I got my license as soon as I could at 16. Now I’m 30. In the past couple of years I’ve started living on my own and work remote. I hate driving and have started to realize I am really bad at it. Each drive feels like I’m rolling the dice.
I think if I had been less insecure when I was younger I would have never gotten my license. It’s a real shame to me that driving is necessary for so many. We need better public transport
Best of luck stranger. Not driving is a shitty thing for your parents be disappointed over. Stay safe
I love in a city with decent public transport and have planned to minimize the need for a car as much as possible. So basically i don’t even have license, basic services are within a walking distance, public transport is free and rather good and workplace has their own transportat as well.
Maybe my mother is disappointed, mostly because the remnant from society era and a car being a status symbol, but at the same time we’re not close enough for me to notice it or care.
When I moved to Europe everyone said (and continues to say) that I really need to have a car. It’s not just my family, it’s friends, colleagues, acquaintances… Strangers on the train. I did transfer my license and have rented a car a handful of times to move furniture or clean up after moving out of my last place.
Everyone here is convinced I need a car for my daily life, but my kids, my spouse, and I all have bikes. We have a large bike trailer for big purchases at a distance, and we can do what we need to do in town or on the trains. I don’t see the point in owning, fueling, and maintaining a beast of a machine just for some minor conveniences.
In Slovenia, it’s hell without a car. You could go to school without a problem, since the whole infrastructure is designed around it, but driving to work in an industrial part of town … NO, fuck you. Even the college route is shit, but driving in Ljubljana in rush hour and parking somewhere is even worse, so I will have to deal with it.
I drive, but that’s because I live in the US where most cities have shit public transit.
Also, I haven’t seen to my crazy ass judgemental Trumper parents in 5 years, so that’s not a problem for me.
I drive. I was super excited to. When I was 14 I started mentally preparing. I would pay attention to street names and intersections and directions, which lanes did which. I spent time on an early version of Google Maps practicing navigation- how to get from my house to my friend’s house, the school, my grandparents, the mall, etc. I would walk or ride my bike and try to purposefully explore and learn the entire southern half of my city and suburbs. I got a copy of the state-issued driver’s manual and read it multiple times. I bought a cheap MadCatz Mini racing wheel + pedals for the PS1/2 and practiced using it in tons of games- Grand Theft Auto, Mercenaries, NASCAR Thunder, Gran Turismo, etc. I went and took the test to get my Learner’s Permit the very first day I could. I was a year younger than most of my friends, but still one of the first to get a license.
I drove a lot until I was almost 30, when the pandemic hit. Then I started working from home. I had recently got a relatively new xar in 2018, but my wife’s car waa old, so she started using mybcse mostly. One day I went to start her car and found an electrical issue. After a bunch of investigating… We went down to 1 car, and her old car is still sitting in our garage, waiting to be traded in whenever we do get around to buying our next car.
Furthermore, my retina in my dominant eye detached itself. I had surgery to re-attach it. It was successful, but my vision in that eye is only about half of what it once was, and my brain swapped to my other eye. I can drive, both legally and safely, but I do sometimes struggle to read street names or exit signs. So nowadays I mostly just drive the same familiar local streets that I know.
Also my wife gets carsick as a passenger, so even before all that she would often insist on driving.
I tend to drink less than most people so i’m occasionally DD.
Why would it hurt someone’s parents that they don’t drive ? feels like such a strong choice of words.
In most of the US, Canada and other pathologically car-centric societies, driving isn’t really optional, with no public transit options to speak of. So someone not driving would lead a very dependent and limited life. I don’t know where OP is from, but I guess that’s their case. That’s not the case for most of rest of the urban areas of the world.
Disappointment in your life accomplishments and/or annoyance from having to drive their adult child places themselves.
They want space and time alone. For the kid to go out and be social.
And to be independent. If said kid(assuming 18+) doesn’t drive and the parents have to drive them everywhere it’s going to get old quick.
What, I drive with my parents often. It isn’t really problematic, but I do drive myself when I need/want to.
You have your parents drive you places or you tag along when they go out? Big difference…you also said you do drive yourself when you want/need. So not the same thing as OP.
I live in London. I dont feel I need to. My parents are indifferent. I could imagine I would want to if I was not living in the city though
I need to drive where I live.
It is kind of liberating for me. Plus I don’t get motion sickness/vertigo if I’m the driver, unlike being a passenger. I follow the rules so well (unlike everyone else on the road), one of my favourite ways to unwind is driving with music.
That said, going out costs money. I cant afford to go on a Sunday drive…
I got a driver’s license but drive as little as possible (practically never). My parents think it’s good that I got it and are sure there will be a point where I will be very glad that I have it, but I don’t think the time and money will ever pay itself back. Trains are just better.
I wish I didn’t. I think I got my license before I graduated college. Some friends were sick of it and had me take the drivers test on one friends car (road trips and such). Then my original field was limited and had to drive to work. ugh. Once I was working in or near the city my driving went down to mostly shopping and some doctors. My wife drives when I can get her to. She knows I hate it. Cars just suck in every way shape and form. Inefficient, bad for the environment including global warming and clean air, dangerous. The most likely way anyone is likely to physically hurt or worse yet kill someone is behind the wheel of a car. public transit is great in places that it is, bikes are better, walking is the tops.
I don’t drive. I used to, but I’m not fucking rich, and I don’t want to kill anyone. I can walk, so I do that. Just moved to a place with busses. They even run sometimes, too!
If I told my mom, I’m sure she’d quietly nag me about it every time we interacted. She’s got a very right/wrong dichotomous viewpoint, and driving is good, while having to walk is for those with moral failings (like poverty!).
Forget your parents emotions. This is likely hardest on you. Hopefully they will help you find other ways of getting around.
I drive. I would not be able to do most of the jobs I’ve done without a license. My last job was an hour drive to work, get in the work truck, drive anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours to the job location, then drive to all the facilities in that location, then back to the shop, and another hour home.
I literally spent more time behind a steering wheel than I didn’t at that job.
I don’t. I tried learning but it was overwhelming and stressful and I didn’t want to make a scene, so I quit.
My parents thought it was (both dead now, they didn’t change their minds) pathetic and stupid that I don’t drive. They also assumed a bunch of shitty things about why I quit the lessons too.
