Unless he is grounded for some reason or other, young son Brady will get his driver's license when he turns 16 next week, and then begins another chapter in parenting.

There has been some debate on whether young son will be allowed to get his license—-his mother tends to think he needs to show some more responsibility around the house before he starts driving by himself. For the most part, I agree.

However, the question of maturity is the area in which Lil Red (my wife) and I don't quite see eyeto eye. She says that she was more mature than Brady at his age, to which I agree because boys are not as mature as girls at that age. And some of us are still lacking some maturity when we pass the half century mark.

Is he mature enough to drive? We have done the best we could in showing him the ropes, letting him drive regularly on rural roads, the interstate and in towns. We have not yet ventured onto something as wild as I-35, the busiest road in Texas, or into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but it is just around the corner as he gains more experience under less stressful conditions. My thought is that he will not gain driving maturity until we turn him loose, as worrisome as that may be.

A few months ago I was contemplating what kind of vehicle to get young son. Brady and I preferred a "cool" car, specifically a low-slung convertible. Little Red, on the other hand, favored a pickup truck, a big pickup truck, to keep her baby safe as he heads down the road. It probably could go without saying, young son will not be driving a low-slung convertible. He does, however, have permission to put racing stripes and loud pipes on his pickup.

There are rules attached to young son's new driving privilege, some of them easily enforceable and others not so easy to monitor. But, we will try.

Somebody told me there is a curfew on young drivers, hours during which they cannot operate a car or truck. We don't need a mandated curfew, we have a family curfew that does not allow him to be out as late as the authorities allow. My father established the curfew when my brothers and I were teenagers and it is simply that we had to be in by midnight because the only thing to get into after midnight is trouble.

Something to be on the lookout for that wasn't around when Lil Red and I were young is the infernal cellular telephone. It is against the law for young drivers to use them when they are driving, in spite personally witnessing young drivers weaving all over the road while trying to send a text message while also trying to steer. That is a recipe for disaster. Young son is grounded from his cell phone as often as he is granted use and I won't hesitate to take it away at any provocation. For some reason, Brady does not quite grasp the concept that the cell phone bill is a good way to determine if he has been obeying the rules.

Although cussed on a regular basis, the price of gasoline will serve as a deterrant to excessive driving. We used to cruise around town on 50 cents worth of gasoline, which bought just under two gallons, but at a price of $2.50 per gallon, and sometimes even higher, I am hoping that young son will think before he takes off, at least every once in a while.

There also is the threat from his mother. Brady knows that if he violates the driving rules we set down, or a list of other rules such as doing well in school, his mother will not hesitate to drive him to school in the mornings . . . dressed in the rattiest bathrobe she can find and with her hair all a mess. And, she may get out of the car to give him a big hug and kiss before he enters school.