Scooter brainwashing

An interesting comment was made on my last entry. Will I allow my son to choose a standard motorcycle with a manual transmission or encourage him to get a scooter instead? I suppose it's a fair question.

My parenting style is such that I put knowledge and ideas out there and allow my son to make decisions for himself, though there are times that "encouragement" is given to help him make the best decisions. When he was younger, there was more "encouragement" and less individual decision making. As he grows older, the freedom to make his own decisions on his own, with less input from his mother and me, continues to increas.

That taken into account, I've already told him that he may purchase a scooter with my help when he gets his driver's license after his 16th birthday. There are several reasons for this:

• A 50cc scooter doesn't require an M classification in Pennsylvania.
• A 50cc scooter doesn't cost as much as a car.
• A 50cc scooter doesn't have a "back seat" in the same way that a car does (think about it).
  
• The insurance cost on a 50cc scooter is minimal

If he wanted to get his motorcycle license, I'd be willing to help him with a motorcycle instead of a scooter, but due to the current laws in PA, if they do not change before his 16th birthday, he would need to complete 50 hours on a motorcycle and 50 hours in a car to get both licenses. It'll be up to him really.

The scriptures state; "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This verse has shown its truth in my son. Love and patience have helped shape him into a young man who, despite some expected lapses from time to time, shows wisdom and great depth of passion. He's a good kid and so he earns more and more liberty and trust from my wife and me as the days pass.