>>>I'm a big advocate for people doing what they enjoy. You only get one trip on this ride called life. When you get the opportunity to do something that you know will make you happy and the only discomfort it will cause is that Allie's face will hurt from smirking at her "nuts" daddy? This is an easy one. ;)
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>>Jake, you are the man! As far as Allie, daughters were invented to teach their fathers humility. I can stand her occasional disapproval. It's an unspoken two way pledge we have between us. Plus she suggested I get an automatic transmission, which is what she knows how to drive ;-)
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>Oh Mike...you sadly neglected her auto education! She don't know what FUN is! (grin)
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>Bet she drives just to get somewhere too....

I taught Allie and Emily to drive with a stick shift. We started just driving around in a local school parking lot (after hours) to practice starting and stopping and shifting from first to second to third. Out on the road, though, she got new driver's anxiety that she couldn't shake. The last time she drove it, just around the subdivision, she stalled at a stop sign and refused to go on. She is three years older now and much more mature so maybe we will have another go at it.

One interesting thing I noticed was that Emily mastered the stick shift when I was not in the car with her. I thought I was being patient and soothing with them, but maybe not. They sensed my anxiety the way a dog does. I would let her drive to school in the morning, then drive the car back home, and there was one particular tricky spot. You come to a signal light, then turn right onto an uphill with a train crossing right there. More than once she stalled out there. "Oh s***," she would say. She has always wanted to impress me, more so than I have ever needed.