If you have brought up your children with love and care, and they show signs of having inculcating the morals and ethics that you so carefully instilled in them, you are bound to feel proud of it. However, this is no reason to rest on your laurels. If they are now in their teens you have very important reasons to be all the more cautious now.

Due to reasons beyond their control, teens tend to forget all that they learn from their parents in certain situations. One such situation is when they get a license to drive cars and start using the family car.

While driving, the most common activity that we see teenagers indulge in, apart from speeding, is drunk driving. Teens and drunk driving has indeed reached enormous proportions. If that sounds strange then you are welcome to check out the statistics on teens and drunk diving online. With a driving license comes the legal sanction of driving. Driving gives them mobility and the freedom to visit distant places in the town which was probably not possible earlier. This, more than anything else, prompts them to try prohibited things as they feel that they are so far away from home that no one known will see them and report. This often leads to drinking and most of the times they end up drinking more than what they can handle. It gets worse when they are with friends and the mob mentality, so to say, gets hold over them.

It is fairly expected of teenagers to try out what is prohibited by elders or what society considers taboo. Teens are all the more susceptible to temptations as they are still not mature enough to foresee what is in store for them.

The bad effects of excessive drinking are not unknown to parents. There have been cases where teens have stooped so low as to steal liquor and then be held by the police on charges of driving in an inebriated state and felony.

This is not only a cause for embarrassment for the parents but it also leaves them wondering as to what went wrong with upbringing of the kids. If you have a teenage child at home it will stand you in good stead if you check out how teens are behaving nowadays once they have a car under them. The best way is to look for statistics and arrive at a conclusion on your own. It is better to take precautions rather than suffer humiliation in society. It is never too late.