What would you do?

[N2Clsx]

Mods move this if you need to. I new to posting again. Quick story here.

My sons Blazer stalled so I went to help him and ended up calling AAA for a tow. I stayed there and let my son borrow my Dmax CC long bed because he had somewhere to be. He stopped home first and clipped a leased jetta that gets turned in on monday. We got the jetta fixed and will be turned in. It looks perfect. Now my truck will be another $314 to fix which come out to $814 total. Didnt want to do the ins thing because that would kill his rates, or maybe mine. (17yrs old) My record is perfect so we paid cash. I have many extra chores he can do to pay this off in time.

Would you guys have him work the whole $814 off or maybe work out some kind of deal? BTW, he just dropped about 2K of his own money to rebuild the Blazer. I know you have to pay for your mistakes, I just feel bad when you finally get your Blazer on the road and get hit with a $800 bill for an accident. What do you all think?

[vin63]

I had to pay for all of my damages, accidents, etc. as a young driver. Not going through the insurance is a good move since it sounded like both vehicles were yours or under your responsibility. In my case, it really made me pay close attention to my driving and not take things for granted.

[hotrodhomi]

Sounds like a few lawns are getting mowed in your neighborhood. At least everyone is okay. Back in the day, my dad would have made me work that off, just as you suggested.

[bucketObolts]

I agree with vin63. Have him pay it in full, itll definitely teach him to be more careful and how expensive even a minor accident can be. but maybe if you got a few bucks lyin around, buy him somethin small for his blazer cuz it really does suck that he just got it on the road and now this. Doing chores is a lot better than him having to hand his paychecks over.

[N2Clsx]

Thanks guys. I feel bad because he has almost enough $$ to have a new tint job done. Like all of us he has big plans for this. Line X the inside, redo the seats, 5 point harness and I am proud of that. What hurts is that it was a little accident just as he was getting started. And all the hours he put into the Blazer. I guess he goes onto the payment plan. He already said he will forgo the tint, he told my wife here is the $$$ to start paying up. First step to manning up.

[N2Clsx]

On the other hand, he did damage MY baby.

[beautimus]

Looking back, i know what my dad would have done.
He would have let me pay him the whole amount without saying a word, and when it was all over, he would have handed me the money back and said go get your windows tinted boy, I'm proud of you for the way you handled your self.

[djgebert]

It sounds like you've got a pretty responsible young man there if he is already offering to pony up some cash. $800 to a 17 yr old might as wel be $8k. I would probably let my son make me a few payments and if he made them as promised I would probably let him off the hook a little. But hey, I'm a softy and my boy would probably try to make an excuse why he couldn't pay me anyway

[PanelDeland]

Let him pay up.He'll make plenty of mistakes in his life and needs to learn while it's $800.00 instead of several thousand.But since he seems to be doing the right thing,you might borrow the Blazer one day and bring it back with tinted windows.

" Life isn't about the mistakes,it's about how you make them right"
Meaning we all make mistakes but the way you take responsibility for them and make it right is the measure of a person.

[71swb4x4]

I agree let him pay up. In the grand scheme of things it's a small mistake, but it will teach him a big lesson. It's tough, you want to be a nice dad, but at the same time you don't want him to grow up thinking dad will fix his mistakes whenever he makes them.

[treveiger]

Whenever i damaged a vehical it was always my pocket that it came out of. The fact that hes owning up to it is good and shows he is sorry for what happened. My father had me pay him back if i couldnt afford it but he also helped me out when i needed it.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by beautimus

Looking back, i know what my dad would have done.
He would have let me pay him the whole amount without saying a word, and when it was all over, he would have handed me the money back and said go get your windows tinted boy, I'm proud of you for the way you handled your self.

<<<<<This!
I have done this exact same thing for young guns in distress. I didn't mind helping, but wanted to offer them the life lesson of taking on the responsibility for your mistakes. In the end, I either gave the money back or bought them something as a reward for proving they were responsible enough to pay off their debt.

[crazy longhorn]

He sounds like a pretty resposible kid(you gotta love that) The money probably dont hurt you as bad as it does the kid, but he should be responsible for the damages. How you do it is only for you to decide I like my boys to pay cash for cash, but I can do it in small installments , so they arent broke all the time....but they still understand that they need to be responsible for the problem. I have 2 boys, 1 is 25 & the other is 21.....the youngest is good with money, a good responsible kid....man his older brother has some growin to do tho! my thoughts on kids , is that you dont want to hand them too much for nothing(we did that with the 1st 1 I think). Teach them to be responsible for themelves, & maybe we have showed them someting that they can use for a lifetime? crazyL