Making mistakes.

"How are we meant to learn from our mistakes if we are not allowed to make any?"

My middle sister asked this question one night when I was about 12. We were all sitting at the dinner table, and my older 2 sisters were getting a grilling over their weekend activities when Jennifer piped up with that comment. I have often thought about that night and have often quoted it to other people too, I am not sure if she read it somewhere or if she made it up heself but I find it to be remarkabley true.

Last night I found myself saying it to our eldest son. He made some mistakes over the weekend and this in turn led to bad consequences and ones that he will be paying for.

He set out on Saturday afternoon camping, I thought they were all going to their regular spot at Gunn Point but instead they trekked it out to Buley rock pools which is close to 2 hours from home.

Anyway, the turn of events went that, the key to the car he had borrowed from a mate had been stolen along with his hat and once the ranger returned the hat, the key was missing and therefore, all the camping gear, eskies laden with food and drink and all their clothing and bedding was now locked in the car.

So he smashed the car window to be able to get the gear out which I guess was survival instinct considering we have 36degree heat with stifling humidity. He knew he would pay for the window to be replaced and that all would be ok. They carried on camping and then the next day when they were thinking about leaving he then thought that he would start the car without the key, which he managed to do but of course the steering wheel was locked and there was no way it was driveable!

I then get a text message from his girlfriend she asked me to call her, which I did. Initially I was worried, I thought something really serious had happened and then she explained it all. She had driven her car with another friend to Batchelor which was 30 minutes away, in order to get some service as no one had a sattelite phone at Buley. After telling me that we needed to get a tow truck out there to pick the car up (Yikes on a Sunday???WTF???) Paul and I would also have to travel out there as they would not be able to fit in the truck.

We dropped the 4 yong ones at my dear friend's house and off we went to Litchfield. I guess in one way, it was a good opportunity to take the new car for a good run but still, it would have been better under nicer circumstances.

We drove for what seemed like forever, arrived at the spot where we were to meet his two friends and they werent there. So we continued on to Buley and then noticed huge skid marks and her car off the side of the road. After checking for them we then turned around and found them at a different servo to what they said they were at. The poor kids had hitched a ride back to the servo to wait for us.

Apparently, late the night before, her car had been taken by another kid, he decided to hoon around, drifting and doing burnouts and subsequently crashing it. (I now have a new education on what some kids get up to!) In turn, unbeknownst to them this weakened the front axle and as they were travelling at 100kms an hour, it snapped and they veered off the road.

At this stage I was furious, I knew the kid that had taken her car and he had been in trouble with the police last year over the vandalism of a display home (to the tune of 100k) and he was already banned from our house.  I could not contain my rage when we got to the car park where the truck had already loaded TJ's car and I promptly flew off the handle calling this kid every name under the sun all while about 15 teenage boys looked on. I dont think anyone wanted to mess with a 5 foot nothing screaming woman who was clearly within her rights for abusing him!
We waited for another car trailer to arrive to pick up her car before we ventured on the long and silent trip home.

We had a chat to TJ last night, asked him what he learnt from the day and we were very satisfied with his answers, not only does he have to pay us back the $350 for the truck to go out there, he also has to pay for the window of the car and perhaps even a new ignition if the owner does not have a spare key to the car. It was an expensive one but I think the main thing he learnt from the weekend was that he clearly has to choose the right friends. Having this other kid that "stole" one of his girlfriends car could very nearly killed both her and his best mate if they had of veered to the right rather than the left. Oncoming traffic and speeds of 100 kill people and it could have been a very sad Sunday.

Paul and I are thinking that maybe, just maybe, we may have turned a corner with him, that he will get rid of all the toxic friends in his life and just hang with the good crowd, well we are hoping for that anyway.

*sigh*